Otaviano Canuto on Global Inequality

Throughout my last 15 years working in multilateral institutions, many times around the world I was asked to speak about the success of poverty reduction in Brazil during the new millennium. Last week, someone who was on such an occasion in October 2013 in Nairobi asked me what my numbers had become after these recent years of precarious macroeconomic performance and high unemployment in the country. I replied that they have changed ... in part! Indeed, the fact that, even without ...

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson caught policymaker’s attention to the critical role of institutions for development. Their work gives too much emphasis to the prospects of revolution, however. A reading of the World Bank’s World Development Report of 2017 points to directions that all actors involved in the process, whether domestic or international, elite or non-elite, can take to improve societies. ...

Depuis la fin de l’année 2017, le président Donald Trump mène plusieurs batailles commerciales, contre différents partenaires, sous prétextes de sauver des emplois industriels américains et de réduire le déficit commercial des États-Unis. S’il est difficile de se prononcer sur les effets des combats commerciaux amorcés par le président Trump, l’importance des opposants et des échanges pour l’économie mondiale en fait une source de risque pour la croissance, les emplois et les prix à ...

The Brazilian economy pays a price in terms of productivity foregone because of its lack of trade openness. A trade opening process would bring an adjustment impact that could nonetheless be mitigated with public policies that facilitate labor mobility and job migration. Benefits from trade opening would also hinge on policy improvements in complementary areas, such as infrastructure investments, business environment and others. The Brazilian economy would benefit from opening trad ...

Location decisions of firms and workers shape the spatial distribution of economic activity between and within cities. On one hand, the interaction between cities is widely investigated in the literature of regional and urban economics, which tries to assess the extent to which urban scale affects the local concentration of different skills, sectors, etc., apart from defining each city's role in the regional system. On the other hand, within-city dynamics and internal heterogeneity ...

Dans le sillage des débats actuels sur la contribution de la femme à la création de richesses, le présent ouvrage s’essaye d’y contribuer moyennant des approches méthodologiques innovantes couvrant plusieurs champs d’analyse conciliant l’égalité de genre, les politiques publiques et la croissance économique au Maroc. Il offre, ainsi, un diagnostic exhaustif de l’évolution des inégalités de genre en termes, notamment, d'accès à l'emploi, à l'éducation, à la santé, à l'infrastructure, ...

Following the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, we published part 1 of this policy series, presenting a comprehensive analytical and predictive model explaining the key factors leading to failure or success of DRM strategies in Africa. In part 2, we provide concrete illustrations of actionable solutions in order to help policy leaders implement DRM successfully for effective delivery of the SDGs. ...

Housing is part of the United Nations 11th Sustainable Development Goal, which is to “make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. One of the most important targets of such a goal is to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing1 and basic services and upgrade slums”. Since 2007, the world has faced rising inequality, insecurity and climate change impact. According to UN Habitat, 54% of the world´s population currently live in cities. By 2050, this n ...