Inequality in Latin America: Breaking with History?

By D. Ferranti, Guillermo E. Perry, Francisco H. G. Ferreira, M. Walton. 2004

613 citations recorded by the source corpus.

With the exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean has been one of the regions of the world with the greatest inequality. This report explores why the region suffers from such persistent inequality, identifies how it hampers development, and suggests ways to achieve greater equity in the distribution of wealth, incomes and opportunities. The study draws on data from 20 countries based on household surveys covering 3.6 million people, and reviews extensive economic, sociological and political science studies on inequality in Latin America. To address the deep historical roots of inequality in Latin America, and the powerful contemporary economic, political and social mechanisms that sustain it, Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean outlines four broad areas for action by governments and civil society groups to break this destructive pattern: 1) Build more open political and social institutions, that allow the poor and historically subordinate groups to gain a greater share of agency, voice and power in society. 2) Ensure that economic institutions and policies seek greater equity, through sound macroeconomic management and equitable, efficient crisis resolution institutions, that avoid the large regressive redistributions that occur during crises, and that allow for saving in good times to enhance access by the poor to social safety nets in bad times. 3) Increase access by the poor to high-quality public services, especially education, health, water and electricity, as well as access to farmland and the rural services. Protect and enforce the property rights of the urban poor. 4) Reform income transfer programs so that they reach the poorest families.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/408b6ee972e05b04646f41a946edc9dd6d14a7e2

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In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Intergenerational Mobility and Inequality: The Latin American Case* (2014, background): “Latin America is the most unequal region of the world, and it has been since at least the 1960s (de Ferranti et al. 2004).”
Cities, Territories, and Inclusive Growth: Unraveling Urban–Rural Linkages in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico (2015, background): “Overall, the importance of initial inequality would conﬁrm the propositions of Engerman and Sokoloﬀ (1997) and De Ferranti et al. (2004) about long-standing structural inequality in Latin America.”
Politics and Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (2006, methodology): “There is increasing consensus that this inequality is a serious obstacle to both poverty reduction and economic growth generally (Barro 1997; de Ferranti et al. 2004; Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean [ECLAC] 2004; Inter-American Development Bank [IDB] 1998).”
Lessons from NAFTA for Latin America and the Caribbean (2004, background): “The stylized facts regarding macroeconomic volatility are discussed at length in De Ferranti et al. (2000). 21.”