necessary social and economic investments; transformative social
policies; enabling frameworks for peace/conflict prevention, good
governance and human rights, as well as addressing systemic issues,
such as the differential impact of globalization and inequalities
among and within countries. How an equitable agenda would look
in sectors like education, energy and mining, finance, health,
housing, industry, labor, rural development, social protection,
tourism, trade, transport and infrastructure, urban development,
water and sanitation, can be found in Ortiz and Cummins in this
volume.
Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Bruno Martorano provide country
examples of this in their paper “Policies for Reducing Income Inequality:
Latin America During the Last Decade.” In most Latin American
countries, income inequality rose steadily during the 1980s and
1990s, but declined from 2002 to 2007. Their paper analyzes the
main factors explaining changes in income inequality, which are
socially-responsive macroeconomic policies in tandem with
progressive social policies, introduced in recent years by a number
of left-of-centre governments which have come to power during
the last decade. The paper tests econometrically the importance of
all these factors on data for 18 countries from 1990 to 2007. The
results suggest that a continuation of fiscally prudent distributive
and redistributive policies, which have emerged in much of the
region in the 2000s, should preserve most of the income inequality
gains recorded in recent years.
For reference, Annex 1 presents data on multidimensional child
poverty in selected countries, and Annex 2 a comprehensive list of
income inequality in 141 countries.
Isabel Ortiz
Louise Moreira Daniels
Sólrún Engilbertsdóttir