The Problems with Rising Income Inequality

It will review some of the problems created by widening income disparities, both for policymakers and, more generally, for social cohesion and sustainable economic development. The presentation will also explore three ways in which the problem of inequality could be mitigated over the medium-term, all of them within the grasp of policymakers everywhere, particularly in the developing world, where inequality has particularly undesirable consequences. None of these possible remedies to the problem of inequality are getting the attention they deserve; all of them would make a great difference.

For the 2017 academic year Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros is on leave from the World Bank as a Senior Fellow at the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. From 2011 to 2017 he was the Director of the Global Indicators Group in DEC, the unit leading the Bank's research and analytical work. The Indicators Group is the department responsible for the Bank's Doing Business report and other international benchmarking studies. Previously he was Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Program at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, where he was also the Editor of the Global Competitiveness Report, the Forum's flagship publication, as well as a number of regional economic reports. Before joining the Forum he worked for several years in the financial sector in London, with a special focus on emerging markets. He was the International Monetary Fund's Resident Representative in the Russian Federation during the 1990s.
Before joining the IMF, Lopez-Claros was a Professor of Economics at the University of Chile in Santiago. He was educated in England and the United States, receiving a diploma in Mathematical Statistics from Cambridge University and a PhD in Economics from Duke University. He is a much-sought-after international speaker, having lectured in the last several years at some of the world’s leading universities and think tanks. In 2007 he was a coeditor of The International Monetary System, the IMF, and the G-20: A Great Transformation in the Making? and The Humanitarian Response Index: Measuring Commitment to Best Practice, both published by Palgrave. He was the editor of The Innovation for Development Report 2010–2011: Innovation as a Driver of Productivity and Economic Growth, published by Palgrave in November 2010. More recent publications include: “Fiscal Challenges After the Global Financial Crisis: A Survey of Key Issues” (2014), “Removing Impediments to Sustainable Economic Development: The Case of Corruption” (2015) and “The Moral Dimension of the Fight Against Corruption” (2017).

LUNCH PROVIDED

Please contact Carmen Trigo at Carmen.Trigo@georgetown.edu for any​ accommodation request or event inquiries. A good faith effort will be made to fulfill any reasonable accommodation request related to a disability.