Overcoming Inequality in Latin America: Issues and Challenges for the 21st Century [Hardcover]

Latin America is faced with the challenge of achieving the Millennium Developmental Goal to halve poverty in the region by 2015. Historically, this region has experienced persistently high levels of inequality and poverty, the causes and consequences of which are analytically examined here.

Adopting a multidimensional approach, this informative book focuses on the mechanisms that lead to higher inequality and emphasizes the role of macroeconomics, trade rules, capital flows and the political electoral process. It analyzes how inequality has hindered development, how it interacts with a nations economic, social and political processes, and how inequality constrains these processes in ways that weakens the prospect of establishing and sustaining a dynamic, wealthy and creative society.

An international team of specialist contributors investigate and explain these crucial issues. Examining the key economic policies and reforms which have exacerbated the regions extremely high inequality levels, throughout this book they prescribe an alternative range of policy suggestions to help alleviate inequality and provide the foundations for more equitable development.

List of Figures and Tables  List of Contributors  Foreword  Preface  Acknowledgements  List of Abbreviations 1. Introduction   2. Inequality in Latin America: Dimensions and Processes  Appendix A The Measurement of Inequality  Appendix B Poverty and Inequality in Latin America in the 1990s  3. The Interactions between Inequality and the Macro-economy in Latin America in the Post-Reform Context  4. Inequality in Latin America  5. Inequality and Trade in Latin America  6. The Political Economy of Inequality 7. Overcoming Inequality in Latin America