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• I examine the impacts of policies that strive to maximize conservation targets. • My analysis relies on fieldwork in Ugandan communities to study the impacts of fisheries policy. • I find that the attainment of conservation efficiency comes at the cost of reduced social equity. • I find that long-term sustainability is compromised when a policy prioritizes conservation efficiency while disregarding social equity. • I suggest that the "win–win assumption" be replaced by the acknowledgement of necessary trade-offs. Natural resource governance often grapples with the challenge of balancing conservation efficiency and social equity. While both objectives are essential, their persistent collision exposes an inherent dilemma. Suggesting that existing studies fail to grasp the depth of such dilemmas adequately, this paper examines the comprehensive impacts of natural resource policies that strive to maximize conservation targets. I hypothesize that (1) the attainment of conservation efficiency comes at the cost of reduced social equity and (2) the long-term sustainability of natural resource policy is compromised when it prioritizes conservation efficiency while disregarding social equity concerns. The empirical analysis draws on fieldwork in Ugandan communities to consider the impacts of a fisheries policy initiated by the government in 2015. A survey of 319 fishermen and unstructured interviews with eighteen elders on Buvuma Island in Lake Victoria reveal that while the new policy has considerably enhanced resource conservation, it has also intensified social inequities, and there are valid concerns about its long-term sustainability. Additionally, despite the new policy encountering substantial local opposition, a seemingly paradoxical consensus asserts that conservation success is only attainable with the same policy's implementation. In the conclusion section, this paper suggests that the common "win–win assumption," which implies misleadingly that conservation efficiency and social equity can always be simultaneously attained, should be replaced with the acknowledgment that trade-offs between the two objectives are often necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper highlights the limited extent to which dominant development and humanitarian framings engage with considerations of religious inequalities as well as the language of 'religion' and belief. • Failing to attend to these inequalities can have negative, if not catastrophic, consequences for the hoped-for outcomes of development and emergency response initiatives. • Primary research on humanitarian responses in Iraq from 2014 to 2019 portrays the reality of how religion-blind development concepts and framings interplay at the frontline of a humanitarian response to conflict. • Suggestions are provided about how to incorporate considerations of religion, religious inequalities and belief into development frameworks and programming. Within the international development and humanitarian arenas no one disagrees with the language and aspirations of inclusion, protection, rights and equality. Yet, most development framings – policy and operational – have still to develop meaningful ways to attend to the specific advantages or disadvantages associated with religious views or beliefs that shape the way people and communities function and behave within society. This paper explores influential conceptual and programmatic framings of international development and humanitarian response, specifically the human development approach, capital and asset-based framings, horizontal inequalities, the SDGs and humanitarian principles. We analyse the extent to which they engage with considerations of religious inequalities (religious diversity, identity, inclusion) and language of 'religion' and belief. Drawing on an evidenced-based case study of humanitarian/development responses in Iraq in the period from 2014 to 2019, the paper illustrates the reality of how a smorgasbord of religion-blind development concepts and framings interplay at the frontline of a humanitarian response to conflict, and the ways in which multiple actors wrestle and flex to design, target and implement programmes that were conceived in a religion-blind frame. The research shows how the explicit incorporation of the context and nature of religious diversity dynamics into frameworks has critical real-world impacts on the design, delivery, monitoring and impacts of interventions. Failing to incorporate an understanding of inequalities experienced by people marginalized because of their religious affiliation or belief (whether intentional or through mere oversight) has very likely muted the hoped-for outcomes of many development and emergency response initiatives. Our hope is that international development and humanitarian framings can better deliver on their objective to "leave no one behind" by ensuring inequalities on account of religious identity or practice are appropriately considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reestimates global inequality between 1820 and 1980, reappraises the results up to 2013, and presents new inequality estimates for 2018. It shows that historically, global inequality has followed three eras: the first, from 1820 until 1950, characterized by rising income differences both between and within countries; the second, from 1950 to the last decade of the 20th century, with very high global and between-country inequality; and the current one of decreasing inequality thanks to the rise of Asian incomes, and especially so Chinese. The present era has seen the emergence of the global "median" class (people with per capita annual incomes ranging between $PPP 3,000 and $PPP 5,000) and the greatest reshuffling in income positions between the West and China since the Industrial Revolution. Absolute income differences in the past 30 years have however increased, and the income gap between the "core" and the poor "periphery" (if China is excluded) remains large: the ratio between median income in the core and periphery in 2018 exceeds 8 to 1 in PPP terms, and 22 to 1 in nominal dollars. The evolution of global inequality in the future will much more depend on what happens to the growth rates and inequality in India and large African countries than on China, as well as on the negative impact of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Disconnected state-civil society knowledge flows and disconnected socio-ecological systems inhibit efforts to build socio-hydrological resilience to water risks. • Cape Town's marginalized urban spaces, while physically located at the periphery, are in fact central to the city's urban social-hydrological systems. • Ignoring marginalized urban spaces does not only disproportionally affect Cape Town's impoverished communities, but also effectively undermines the socio-hydrological resilience of Cape Town as a whole. In 2017 and 2018, Cape Town faced historically unprecedented water shortages. With the imminent possibility of running out of water, the city's leadership prioritized reducing water demand and expanding new water sources, while also reinvigorating the goal of seeking to build system-level water resilience for the longer term. Beyond the context of Cape Town, the crisis captured global attention, highlighting ongoing and future water security challenges, the realities of climate change, and the critical need to foster transitions towards more resilient water futures. Given that much of the discourse and implementation around water resilience remains squarely focused on the biophysical and engineering aspects of water supply and distribution systems, despite repeated calls for the need for greater attention to issues of equity and power, there remains little understanding of the ways that persistent inequities might serve or inhibit possibilities for urban socio-hydrological (or water) resilience. This paper draws on examples from Cape Town to argue that patterns and legacies of inequality, marginalization, and exclusion erode and inhibit possibilities for water resilience. Providing needed empirical evidence on the nature of these linkages, we theorize that deeply rooted inequities and related dynamics act as "counter-currents"—trends that undermine and present persistent challenges to efforts to enhance socio-hydrological resilience. Documenting examples of disconnections between the state and civil society as well as disconnected socio-ecological systems, we argue that these persistent inequities mean that efforts to achieve socio-hydrological resilience are likely to remain elusive. It is only by foregrounding these processes that it will be possible to make cities more resilient in the face of ongoing and future water-related risks, uncertainties, and climatic and environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• To assess the trend of global income inequality, we must address the challenges of scarce and heterogeneous data and the diversity of opinions on what inequality means, which generates much uncertainty about the results. • This paper provides a new transparent and open-access dataset to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of global distributional changes since 1950 and their implications for inequality and overall welfare. • Inequality has unequivocally increased both between and within countries when considered in terms of dollar distances between people (absolute inequality). • When inequality is considered more as relative distances, the results are less robust. However, it can be said with a high degree of consensus that global inequality has declined since 2000, driven by strong growth in China, India, and other emerging countries, and will likely continue to do so for a few more years. • The main exceptions to the consensus on the decline in relative inequality after 2000 come from extreme sensitivity towards either end of the distribution (i.e., stagnation of the very poor or high concentration of income among the very rich). I analyze trends in global income distribution since 1950 using a new companion WIID dataset with standardized country income percentiles. I investigate the robustness of these trends with respect to key data choices, as well as the degree to which the inequality trend depends on specific distributional views (such as the use of absolute versus relative inequality, or relative emphasis at the bottom versus the top). The results show a robust increase in absolute inequality, along with a more nuanced trend in relative inequality, with a very robust decline after 2000 that was interrupted by the COVID crisis but is expected to continue at least until 2028. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Approaches to 'urban equality' and 'knowledge translation' have changed in the history of the Habitat conferences. • The pathways that have led to the current 'global urban agenda' are as telling as the agendas themselves. • Paradigms about knowledge have moved from building collective narratives, to targeting performance, to measurable data. • The approaches to urban equality have changed influenced by international development processes and power relationships. • Cases of community-based actors help to interrogate politics of knowledge circulation between global-local urban agendas. The relationship between planning research and practice plays a key role in shaping global commitments related to urban development. Arguably, this is the case for a 'global urban agenda' being articulated at an international scale via frameworks like the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda. These multilateral commitments have been shaped by power relationships and assumptions about what kind of knowledge is valuable at different historical moments, a recognition of the local and global impacts of urban development and what sort of urban development is desirable at specific historical junctures. The pathways that have led to the present global attention to cities are as telling as the frameworks themselves. In this paper, we explore the history of multilateral and international networks that have shaped today's global urban agenda. We focus on the three United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat I, II and III) as milestones in the evolution of this agenda. Drawing on Southern urban theory and current debates on the interaction of practitioners and academics, we discuss the paradigms that have shaped the ways in which knowledge has been articulated, circulated and valued in those historical moments via the concept of 'knowledge translation'. We discuss the way in which 'urban equality' has been approached and explored in the praxis of these agendas. To do so, the paper discusses community-based cases that can highlight the different knowledge paradigms, and the power dynamics behind them, opening up questions about the challenges of including diverse voices and knowledges in the 'global' conversation on urban agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• I study a women's group-based health social and behavior change intervention implemented by CHWs in three unique sites. • I create a typology of volunteer CHW management 'styles' and use them to understand CHW empowerment and equity in each site. • Giving volunteers more responsibility leads to greater empowerment, yet demands more time, and excludes marginalized women from being CHWs. • Though payments are seen as 'solution' in volunteer sites and 'problem' in paying ones, I find they have little impact on CHW efficacy or motivation. • However, I find payments may allow more marginalized women to be CHWs and thereby make the program more effective and equitable. Community health workers (CHW) are individuals with no formal health training who perform various roles to address health disparities. There are long-sustained debates over how different forms of incentives shape CHW programs, which are often staffed with volunteer or minimally remunerated women. These debates are complicated by the diversity of CHW roles and contexts in which they work. Evidence is particularly scant around "change-agent" style CHWs, who shape health knowledge and norms within their community. This paper addresses this gap through an analysis of a change agent-staffed program that provided nutrition participatory education through women's groups in three eastern Indian sites. We examine how contextual factors across sites shaped change-agent management, and analyze the implications of each approach for efficacy, empowerment, and equity. Analyzing 68 interviews and 10 focus groups this study advances a typology of 'varieties' of voluntarism that we name laissez faire, active-cultivation, and honorarium-accountability, and uses comparative analysis to examine the equity and empowerment effects within selection, management, and payment. First, we find tensions in the community-based selection of volunteers because rather than selecting highly motivated women, groups selected women in the most favorable socioeconomic position to volunteer. Second, there is a tension around responsibility and expectations in that greater training and responsibility leads women to see more psychosocial empowerment (e.g., knowledge, confidence), but also may create more 'costs' to participation and leads to wider economic inequities in change-agent ranks. Third, we observe a misplaced focus on payments as central to change-agent motivation. While the two volunteer-only sites see payment as 'the answer' to motivation problems, the honorarium site sees payments as 'the problem' because they attract less intrinsically motivated individuals. We conclude that while payments may not make an unmotivated volunteer into a motivated one, this analysis suggests payments would potentially allow more marginalized women to participate, which may be key to making more equitable and efficacious impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We evaluate determinants of participation in conservancy land leases in the Maasai Mara and how they impact household wealth. • Land ownership primarily determines who can participate and benefit from conservancies and by how much. • Conservancy land leases reinforce unequal historical land distribution systems, limiting participation of women and the poor. • After matching households on their observed characteristics, conservancy participation has little impact on household wealth. Understanding the impact of conservation interventions on local communities is important in determining their effects on livelihoods and wellbeing. However, impacts are often not uniform and there are important equity dimensions when evaluating interventions. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate determinants of participation in conservation land leases in the Mara Conservancies in southern Kenya and its impact on household wealth. We find that land ownership determines who can participate in and benefit from conservancy land lease payments, and by how much. The design of the land lease payment scheme therefore has the potential to reinforce and, in cases, amplify existing inequities as it is built upon a legacy of unequal historical land distribution processes that limit the participation of women and poor landless households. We observed significantly higher incomes amongst participant households compared to non-participants, but these differences disappeared after propensity score matching. These results suggest that the differences were not caused by participation in conservancies. Our findings suggest that the design and outcomes of land-based conservation or payment for ecosystem services schemes should consider historic and existing land tenure systems if they are to reduce inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Agenda 2030 commitment to LNOB operates as a form of 'doublespeak' in India. • The Agenda 2030 call to end extreme inequality requires facilitating the 'hegemonic struggle'. • The absence of religion in Agenda 2030 masks the way that religion is leveraged by populists. • Pastoralism is a 'pious occupation' where religion shapes connections to the land and animals. • Religion is an important factor in the hegemonic struggle that the LNOB commitment should enable. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pledged to 'leave no one behind' (LNOB). This article suggests that LNOB can be a form of 'doublespeak', susceptible to being used to mask ideologies and policies that worsen social, political and religious divisions. Despite stated commitments to LNOB, both Agenda 2030 and the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of India adhere to narrow models of development that fail to address and exacerbate the growing problem of religious and other inequalities. This article argues for reclaiming LNOB's radical potential by conceptualising it as an empty signifier that takes on meaning through the hegemonic struggle to articulate what 'left behind' means. It develops this argument through a case study of Hindu Nationalist developmental normativity and two mobile pastoralist communities in Gujarat: Hindu Rabaris and Sufi Muslim Fakirani Jats. The empirical data show that in Gujarat's marketised neo-liberal land regime, mobile pastoralism as a livelihood is increasingly stressed and liable to be constructed as 'left behind'. Simultaneously, the Hindu and Sufi religious practices that shaped pastoralists' relationships with land and animals are being transformed and, framed by the BJP government's promotion of a Hindu nationalist religious identity, are shifting towards adoption of communal Hindu and Muslim identities that exacerbate social and religious inequalities, with particular effects on women. The paper concludes that LNOB has potential to tackle religious and other inequalities and generate a more radical and democratic politics of development if the range of demands that are met by this 'empty signifier' is broadened to challenge the hegemonic representations that dominate, and religion's centrality in this struggle is recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct a model incorporating labor market frictions to elucidate income disparities among provinces, sectors (formal vs. informal), and skill categories (skilled vs. unskilled) within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through quantitative analysis, we demonstrate the significance of technologies, human capital, infrastructure, and labor market frictions in explaining spatial and intra-province inequalities. Although technological disparities emerge as the primary drivers, our findings underscore the presence of strong "O-ring" inequality patterns. This implies that effective development policies necessitate a mix of coordinated policy measures. When considered in isolation, policies focused on enhancing education, infrastructure, and mitigating labor market frictions could potentially escalate poverty along the intensive margin. Additionally, a development policy disregarding the informal sector also yields counterproductive distributional and poverty outcomes. • Quantify relative impact of various factors on income and spatial inequalities in DRC • Production technology is primary driver of spatial inequalities • Complementarities between development policies are pivotal in explaining inequalities • Policies exclusively focused on formal sector decrease wage for low-skilled workers • Paper extends development accounting literature by considering informal sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Comprehensive analysis of the effects of natural disasters on the income distribution in the entire United States and for all types of natural disasters. • Differentiation between individual and household-based measures. • Analysis of adaptation and intensification channels. • Middle incomes are particularly affected by natural disasters. During the last decades, the United States experienced an increase in the number of natural disasters and their destructive capability. Several studies suggest a damaging effect of natural disasters on income. In this paper, I estimate the effects of natural disasters on the entire income distribution using county-level data in the United States. In particular, I determine the income fractions that are affected by natural disasters. The results suggest that in the short-term natural disasters primarily affect middle incomes, thereby leaving income inequality levels unchanged. In addition, the paper examines potential channels that intensify or mitigate the effects, such as unemployment insurance or disaster severity. The findings show that unemployment benefits are an important adaptation tool that reduces the effects of natural disasters. In contrast, the occurrence of multiple and severe disasters aggravate the effects. Finally, the analysis detects heterogeneous effects on incomes by disaster type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Natural resources constitute an important axis around which rural territorial dynamics revolve. Based on empirical registration of how applications for and denouncements of natural resource use are dealt with in two Nicaraguan rural territories, this paper examines the importance of inequality for the institutional practices through which district-level governance of natural resource use takes place. Notable differences are identified. The paper concludes that institutional practices which promote rule-based natural resource governance and gradually curb the veto possibilities of powerful actors are more likely to emerge in territories where political voice is not restricted to the economic elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary The paper estimates the degree of intergenerational earnings persistence in South Africa. Using microdata from the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS), the paper finds that intergenerational earnings mobility in South Africa is low. Moreover, a limited set of inherited circumstances explains a significant fraction of earnings inequality among male adults. In particular, race is shown to play a significant role. The evidence provided for South Africa is consistent with the hypothesis that low levels of intergenerational mobility and equality of opportunity are characteristic of high-inequality emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Local variation in social welfare provision appears in myriad contexts around the world. And yet, our attempts at conceptualizing welfare regimes focus on the national level. In China, local authorities have shaped social policy implementation since economic reforms. In this paper, I answer three questions about subnational variation in social policy provision in China: (1) Have Chinese provinces diverged in their social policy provision?; (2) How do provincial social policy regimes differ from one another?; (3) What explains variation in provincial social policy spending? To answer the first question, I conduct a cluster analysis of provincial social policy spending data. I find that provinces systematically diverge in their social policy priorities. While some provinces invest in education to develop human capital and promote economic growth, others emphasize poverty alleviation. I propose a typology to conceptualize these tendencies. I then test for these divergent approaches using between-effects regression models of provincial social policy spending. Although provincial wealth and needs sometimes play a role in allocations for social policy, I find that economic development strategy and social instability are associated with distinct approaches to social welfare spending. These distinct provincial welfare regimes have implications for the adoption, implementation, and ultimately, effectiveness of social policy in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper re-examines the sources of inequality in Vietnam, a transitional economy with large reductions in poverty from recent and dramatic economic growth, but vastly unequal gains across ethnic groups. Using a decomposition approach to disentangle factor endowments and returns by ethnic group, we draw four key conclusions. First, removing language barriers would significantly reduce inequality among ethnic groups, narrowing the ethnic gap, and especially so through enhancing the gains earned by minorities from education. Second, variations in returns to education exist in favor of the majority in mixed communes, suggesting that either the special needs of minority children have not been adequately addressed in the classroom, or unequal treatment in favor of the majority exists in the labor market. Third, in contrast to recent literature, there is no difference in the benefits drawn from enhanced infrastructure at the commune level across ethnic groups. Finally, we find little evidence to support the established views that the ethnic gap is attributed largely to differences in the returns to endowments. Overall, our research highlights the importance of considering language barriers and the availability of infrastructure for ethnic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary In this paper we explore the effects of fiscal policies and growth on measures of household welfare across the distribution of expenditures for two African countries: Rwanda and Tanzania. We explore the effect of government expenditures on expenditure growth in each quintile of the expenditure distribution and the effect of growth for each group. We find that the benefits of growth are concentrated among the better-off sectors of the population in these two countries (perhaps to the detriment of the poorer sectors) by looking at the effects within a country and across different groups of households and administrative entities. We exploit variation in expenditures and growth across and within regions of each country to estimate the elasticities of expenditure with respect to fiscal expenditure and mean expenditure growth at different points of the expenditure distribution, using household survey data and government expenditure data at the district level. We find that, overall, mean expenditure growth benefits the top expenditure groups. The welfare spillovers are mostly present for top 20% of the expenditure distribution, with the middle of the distribution in Tanzania responding slightly to these spillovers. Public/social expenditures do not appear to affect inequality considerably, but do tend to work toward decreasing inequality. However, mean expenditure growth is related to increases in inequality in the sense that the richest sectors of the population benefit the most from growth. We find that the growth elasticity of expenditure is only above one for the top quintile in both countries. In Tanzania, a 1% increase in average household expenditure is related to a 1.96% expenditure growth in the top quintile and 0.43% in the third quintile. In Rwanda, a 1% increase in average household expenditure is related to a 1.93% increase in household expenditure in the top 20% of the distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper presents the first in-depth analysis of the changing composition of the global income rich and the rising representation of developing countries at the top of the global distribution. We construct global distributions of income during 1988–2012 based on both household surveys and the new top incomes data derived from tax records, which better capture the rich who are typically excluded from household surveys. We find that the representation of developing countries in the global top 1% declined until about 2002, but that since 2005 it has risen significantly. This coincides with a decline in global inequality since 2005, according to a range of measures. We compare our estimates of the country-composition and income levels of the global rich with a number of other sources—including Credit Suisse’s estimates of global wealth, the Forbes World Billionaires List, attendees of the World Economic Forum, and estimates of top executives’ salaries. To varying degrees, all show a rise in the representation of the developing world in the ranks of the global elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Self-Help Groups (SHGs) create a platform that allows women to meet on a weekly basis to save and to take loans if needed. Strict records of all saving and lending are important, both to avoid conflicts in the group and to obtain access to bank loans. Accounting is either done by a group member (internal accountant), or by another villager (external accountant). Using first-hand data on SHGs in Northern India, this paper studies whether economic and non-financial returns differ depending on whether SHGs meet as independent entities or with external involvement. Economic theory suggests that repeated interaction between individuals can help build social capital. The presence of an external accountant hampers this process. Indeed, repeated interaction is more likely to create non-financial benefits in the form of mutual assistance and collective action when the accountant is a group member. However, these benefits come at a cost, as SHGs with internal accountants distribute financial benefits more unequally and the accountants themselves receive larger shares than the other members of the groups. The analysis shows that the larger shares cannot be explained as a compensation for a better financial performance, but that some form of elite capture occurs. However, other group members implicitly agree on the unequal distribution. Indeed, members are not more likely to leave groups, possibly because the loss in financial benefits is outweighed by the gain in non-financial benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary While scholars have examined how migration impacts development, this paper asks the opposite question, examining how local development conditions shape patterns of migration. Specifically, I consider how political institutions in rural sending communities create economic opportunities and constraints for their members, channeling potential migrants into farm or urban jobs. To date, scholars have explained differences in the migration paths of similar communities by looking at features on the receiving end, or at the development of social networks tied to migration. I add to this work by showing how hometown conditions influence out-migration. I compare the histories of two rural villages in Southern Mexico whose members migrated at similar times and volumes, first within Mexico beginning in the 1960s, and then to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. I find that in the village I call “Disposeo,” hierarchical power structures dispossessed members, drove them into debt, and limited their access to urban areas. As a result, when agricultural recruiters came to the village, most potential migrants accepted. By contrast, in “Igualdad,” communal landholding enabled members to reject farm labor. At the same time, rotating political posts helped them build networks into more desirable urban service jobs. As other research underscores, such labor market insertion has long-term consequences: migrants’ first job niches shaped their destinations, social networks, patterns of movement, and social mobility. Thus, even as rural villages erode in the face of emigration, they structure migrants’ prospects in the contemporary economy. In particular, participatory governance and resource redistribution can insulate members from the worst agricultural jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In Ethiopia, drought and temperature shock exposure increased the likelihood of farmers using improved seeds in the subsequent season. • Flood and temperature shocks increased crop species diversification. • Recurrent exposure to drought shocks hindered increased use of improved seeds and diversification of crop portfolios as adaptation actions. • Farmers with small farm sizes and low asset endowments reduced improved seed use and diversification and increased reliance on local seed use following drought shock exposure. • Policies addressing social inequality and supporting the seed systems farmers use are necessary to enhance seed security in the face of climatic and other shocks. Crop diversity plays a central role in smallholder farmers' ability to cope with and adapt to shocks. Shifting crop varieties and diversifying the crop portfolio are common risk reduction strategies. This paper addresses the influence of covariate climate shocks and idiosyncratic socioeconomic shocks on crop variety use and crop species diversification by smallholder farmers using nationwide balanced panel data (2011/12, 2013/14, & 2015/16) from rural households in Ethiopia combined with village-level historical monthly rainfall and temperature data. We apply correlated random effects models, which control for time-invariant household unobservables. Past exposure to drought shocks increased the use of improved seed varieties in general and for wheat, while long-term average rainfall and lagged flood shocks enhance crop species diversity. Lagged temperature shocks increase improved seed use and crop species diversity. However, recurrent drought exposure and exposure to relatively more severe drought shocks significantly reduced overall agricultural activity. Idiosyncratic shocks, to a much lesser degree, influenced seed use and crop diversification decisions compared to covariate drought shocks. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that drought shock exposure on farmers with less than average farm sizes and other assets - compared to those better-off – increased their relative reliance on local seed use, reduced crop diversification, and reduced improved seed use. The results are robust to various sensitivity checks. Our findings are relevant for policy responses aiming to strengthen smallholders' ability to cope with and adapt to shocks: farmers' seed-based risk reduction strategies rely on access to seeds from both formal and informal seed systems, but policies addressing economic inequality are needed to enhance access to improved seeds and crop diversity for resource-poor socioeconomic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Temperature and precipitation anomalies are key drivers of within-country inequality. • Agriculture is a fundamental channel in the climate change-inequality nexus. • Warmer temperatures have a stronger impact on income disparities in rural countries. • Urban areas are more exposed to income disparities induced by extreme precipitations. • Inward FDI diversification enhances resilience, moderating climate-induced inequality. This paper investigates the impact of climate change on within-country income inequality for more than 150 nations over the period 2003–2017. Specifically, we control for a large number of determinants of income disparities detected by extant literature and focus on agriculture as one of the most crucial channels in the climate change-inequality nexus. We find that temperature increases and precipitation anomalies have significant adverse effects on within-country inequality, especially in the presence of larger shares of population in rural areas and of workers in agriculture. We also provide evidence on the lower distributional impact of climate change in economies that are more diversified across value chain activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper is an introduction to nine papers on the impact of globalization on inequality and poverty in Latin America, arising out of a conference organized in Rio under the auspices of a large-scale UNU-WIDER research project. Focusing on different manifestations of globalization and channels through which globalization affects poverty and inequality, the case studies in the present volume cover the spectrum from broad macroeconomic regional and country analyses to more micro-oriented studies in different settings in Central and South America. The case studies illustrate that the impact of globalization on poverty and inequality is extremely context specific. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper analyzes the inequality and determinants of flexibility in smallholder land access in post-war northern Mozambique. This paper demonstrates that high land endowments in aggregate do not imply equal access to cultivated or fallow land at the household level, even if land access has some flexibility across time. A formal test establishes the low extent of flexibility in land access at the household level in the study site. The econometric analysis further reveals that some groups of households such as female-headed households and those with low asset endowments or weak social institutions suffer from significant rigidities in land access. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The paper offers a critical literature review of the debate surrounding the globalization–poverty nexus, focusing on channels through which globalization affects the poor. It first examines the “growth” conduit through which globalization affects poverty. Treating inequality as the filter between growth and poverty reduction, the causal chain of openness–growth–inequality–poverty is scrutinized, link by link. It then examines other channels in the globalization–poverty nexus, such as differential factor movements, the nature of technological change and diffusion, the impact of globalization on volatility and vulnerability, the worldwide flow of information, global disinflation, and institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of strategic policy issues within the context of the globalization debate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: The paper studies the relation between globalization, inequality, and marginalization, within and across countries. It reviews the existing evidence on globalization and global inequality and argues, using a simple theoretical model, that the two are inter-connected. It discusses alternative policies to counter extreme poverty and inequality. The paper takes the view that curbing these, even within one country, requires global, cross-country policies that we do not currently have, and advocates the setting up of an international initiative to coordinate such policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• This study confirms previous findings that income across Africa is overall divergent and forms clubs of convergence: high income, middle income and low-income clubs. • Findings suggest that the Kuznets' curve relationship holds only for economies at the bottom of income distribution. • Inequality is found to be increasing in high income countries in Africa. • There is a limited role of macroeconomic and institutional factors in explaining income inequality in low-income economies. • Fiscal, employment and monetary policies and the rule of law play a statistically significant role in tackling inequality in high-income economies. Reducing income inequality is a crucial goal of sustainable development as income inequality often viewed as harmful to economic growth. The main aim of this paper was to empirically assess the macroeconomic and institutional drivers of income inequality in Africa. We use a Kuznets curve framework, which emphasises the role of income per capita in explaining the time path of inequality. In contrast to much of the literature, we explicitly examine the possibility of the existence of multiple income steady states. Using the concept of clubs of convergence, we show that per capita income is divergent and identify four steady states to which groups of economies converge (i.e., high-income to low-income economies). Using panel data models and a data set encompassing 52 African countries spanning the years 1980–2017, we show that once these multiple steady states are accounted for, the Kuznets curve relationship becomes unstable. Our findings suggest that inequality may be increasing in high-income countries in Africa, while decreasing in low-income or the least developed economies. In addition, the role of macroeconomic and institutional factors in explaining income inequality is limited and differ across convergence clubs. Evidence suggests the importance of fiscal, employment and monetary policies and the rule of law to tackle inequality in high-income economies, while they have no statistically significant role in low-income economies' income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Based on a study of how rural land brokers mediate the arrival of a Special Economic Zone in rural Rajasthan, this paper argues that theories of collective social capital cannot explain how networks, norms, and trust interact in a process of economic change. It then reconstructs Bourdieu’s distinct theory of individual social capital by showing how better-connected farmers are able to broker land and capture profits at the expense of fellow villagers, undermining trust, norms, and collective action. It argues that social capital is most plausibly seen as an aspect of social inequality that hinders inclusive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The roles of informalities in the sustainable city development agenda are unclear. • The paper reviews informalities' roles through the lens of sustainable development. • The results reveal a double-pronged role of informalities in sustaining cities. • Accordingly, the hostile policies on urban informalities are ill-suited. • Regularisation is crucial to promoting informalities' promising roles in cities. The roles of urban informalities in the advancement of the sustainable city agenda are contested in conventional literature. However, the contestation does not take account of the entire dimensions of sustainable cities. To present a holistic argument, the present study examines the roles of informalities in advancing the sustainable city agenda in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by using the sustainable development prism as the analytical framework. A Boolean search methodology was adopted to obtain relevant literature written in the English language from repositories such as Scopus, JSTOR, and ProQuest. The results of a synthesis of the literature suggest that informalities play double-pronged roles in the pursuit of the sustainable city development agenda in SSA. Overall, the emergence of informality is as a result of the failure of the formal systems. They provide employment, secure household income and savings, support national income, provide household basic needs (water access and waste management), and enhance civic engagement. However, informalities contribute to social and gender inequality, insecurity, congestion, and pollution. Based on their positive roles in the advancement of sustainable cities, we recommend a rejection of the prohibitive policies and attitudes towards informalities and call for regularisation as an approach to address the associated ills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper proposes an additional extension to the traditional Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) that links fiscal policies with the concept of equality of opportunities. This new approach, “Opportunity Incidence Analysis” (OIA), is then piloted on three countries, Zambia, Tajikistan, and Paraguay. Three main contributions stand out: first, OIA complements traditional BIA, but increases its analytical resolution by incorporating other circumstances to incomes alone. Second, opportunities and circumstances can be used to target public spending with higher precision. Third, microsimulations can be used to understand the cost-effectiveness of alternative spending interventions that seek to improve equality of opportunities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper constitutes an attempt to determine the relative contribution of changes in economic growth and in the distribution of income to changes in poverty in Mexico. Our findings clearly indicate that growth with redistribution (lower income inequality) was the key to reducing poverty continuously and in an important manner during 2000–2006. However, after 2006, decreasing per-capita income, coupled with the persistently high inequality (Gini of 52%), caused the reversal of the favorable trend observed since 1996, raising poverty to pre-2002 levels. Consequently, it is argued that, for Mexico, a middle-income country exhibiting quite low growth rates and high inequality levels, the further improvement in its distribution of income and assets is essential if the economy is to succeed in making a real dent in poverty. For that purpose, the implementation of an active pro-poor growth policy should be strongly encouraged. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Ethnic redistribution helped reduce poverty in Malaysia over the last 50 years. • However, it was not as important as within-group redistribution or mean-income growth. • The absolute gains to poor people from ethnic redistribution were once high, but have faded. Over the last 50 years, Malaysia has seen one of the fastest rates of income-poverty reduction in the world. This came alongside falling overall income inequality, due in large part to a national policy effort to address ethnic inequalities, in the wake of tragic race riots in 1969. The first paper in the two-part series examined various measures of ethnic inequality. This second paper assesses the role that changes in between-group inequality played in Malaysia's success against poverty. To address this question, a new decomposition method is applied to survey data spanning 50 years. The results indicate that ethnic redistribution helped reduce poverty, but it was not as important as within-group redistribution or mean-income growth. A pure ethnic redistribution effect is defined and isolated empirically. Sizable potential gains to the country's poor from ethnic redistribution are revealed in the 1970s, suggesting that the early policy effort made sense. The absolute gains have faded over time and are now small, though the elasticity of national poverty to ethnic redistribution remains quite high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The race riots in May 1969 triggered a national public effort to address Malaysia's ethnic inequalities. • Ethnic inequality declined over 50 years, more so when redistributive policy was more active. • Measures of ethnic polarization moved highly synchronously with ethnic inequality. • Despite progress, absolute disparities by ethnicity are now even larger than 50 years ago. The race riots that broke out in Kuala Lumpur in May 1969 triggered a national public effort to greatly reduce both Malaysia's longstanding ethnic inequalities and its high incidence of poverty. This paper studies how various measures of ethnic inequality evolved since 1969. Two conceptual distinctions are emphasized: that between income inequality and polarization (on the one hand) and that between relative and absolute inequality (on the other). Over the last 50 years, the poorest ethnic group, the Bumiputera, have had the highest growth rate of household incomes, which helped assure a (substantial) long-term decline in relative between-group inequality, which (in turn) substantially reduced overall income inequality. Measures of ethnic polarization moved highly synchronously with between-group inequality. The differential growth rates by ethnicity were not enough to prevent rising absolute inequality, given the extent of the initial ethnic disparities. Despite the progress against relative inequality, Malaysia's absolute disparities by ethnicity are now even larger than 50 years ago. The second paper of this two-part paper examines the contribution of lower relative ethnic inequality to the country's progress against poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Community-based targeting is frequently used in low-income countries to identify the poor. Yet evidence about its performance is inconclusive and factors of success are understudied. Drawing on controlled field experiments, this paper studies how individual targeting preferences translate into group outcomes and which determinants of progressiveness prevail in rural Zambia. It finds that individuals pursue poverty motives but act selfishly if not restrained. Egalitarianism and favoritism are not as pronounced as critics suggest. Even if individual and group allocations vary considerably, this does not result in individuals’ dissatisfaction. Better access to information and greater trust make targeting outcomes more progressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper shows that colonial institutions are attenuating the impact of NREGA. • Rural and agricultural wages in non-landlord districts increased significantly. • In non-landlord districts NREGA reduces time-spent by women in unpaid domestic work. • NREGA does not impact wages in landlord districts as its provision is insufficient. By providing 100 days of guaranteed employment to every rural household, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) can challenge the hegemony of landed elites as major employers in the Indian countryside. Using the colonial classification of landlord and non-landlord-based land-revenue institutions in India, this paper provides a political economy explanation for regional variation in the labor market impact of NREGA. The extractive landlord-based system led to high inequality in landownership and political domination by a large landlord class. Comparing the labor market impacts of NREGA between the landlord and non-landlord districts in a difference-in-differences and triple-difference framework, we find that the provision of public employment under NREGA and correspondingly, its impact on rural wages is muted in landlord districts. In these districts, public employment under NREGA substitutes for self-farming but has no impact on private wage employment. However, the program is highly successful in raising wages by generating more public employment in non-landlord districts. In these districts, the provision of public employment under NREGA crowds-out labor primarily from unpaid domestic work, reflecting an increase in women's participation in the program. These findings suggest that NREGA has not become a credible alternative to private employment in regions historically characterized by exclusionary economic and political institutions since large land-owning elites in these regions have managed to keep wages depressed by virtue of their position as major employers in the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper uses an enterprise-population-level dataset to investigate the link between globalization and gender inequality in the Chinese labor market. We find that foreign and exporting firms employ more female workers than domestic nonexporters. Foreign participation and export orientation within the same region and industry significantly encourage female employment and reduce the gender wage gap. Furthermore, we show that while a large gender wage gap exists for foreign and exporting firms, it mainly reflects the difference in gender productivity. Gender wage discrimination is observed only among private nonexporting firms. Overall, our results highlight the importance of globalization in encouraging female employment and reducing gender discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines the health status of Chinese ethnic minorities using the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data collected during 1989–2006. We found negative and significant differences between minority and Han Chinese in a set of anthropometric measures for people of all age groups. OLS and province fixed-effects regressions suggest that the economic development level of the province of residence is a major factor contributing to the gap. Oaxaca decompositions further reveal that the observed health gap is mainly due to inequalities in endowments rather than inequalities in their effects. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper presents the impact of income inequality on subjective well-being using data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) Survey. We find that people feel unhappy with between-group inequality, as measured by the income gap between migrants without local urban hukou (household registration identity) and urban residents, irrespective of whether they are urban residents with or without local hukou. However, when we control for identity-related inequality and other individual, household, and city-level characteristics, inequality (as measured by city-level Gini coefficients) positively correlates with happiness. This study contributes to the inequality–happiness literature by distinguishing between the different effects of between-group and general inequality on happiness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper documents the extent of inequality of educational opportunity in India spanning the period 1983–2004 using National Sample Surveys. We build on recent developments in the literature that have operationalized concepts of inequality of opportunity theory and construct several indices of inequality of educational opportunity for an adult sample. Kerala stands out as the least opportunity-unequal state. Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh experienced large-scale falls in the ranking of inequality of opportunities. By contrast, West Bengal and Orissa made significant progress in reducing inequality of opportunity. We also examine the links between progress toward equality of opportunity and a selection of pro-poor policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper considers the proposal that each country distributes its resource rents directly to citizens as a universal and unconditional cash transfer, or Resource Dividend, and estimates its potential impact on global poverty for the years 2000–06. Using a global dataset on resource rents and the distribution of income, I find that if every developing country implemented the policy then the number of people living below $1-a-day would be cut by between 27% and 66%, depending on the year and the assumptions made. Looking ahead, poverty could be better than halved as long as commodity prices do not drop below their 2004 level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Inequality between identity groups has long been thought of as an important contributor to social unrest and violence as well as being important in assessing the justice of societies. Yet, the measurement of the ways in which such groups differ and are unequal remains underdeveloped. Accordingly, this paper introduces three distinct but interlinked concepts relating to inequality between groups which can be used in empirical estimation of group based inequality. We define and discuss the concepts of representational inequality, sequence inequality, and group inequality comparison. Representational inequality captures the extent to which a given level of attribute is shared between members of distinct groups, sequence inequality captures the extent to which groups are ordered hierarchically in their possession of the attribute and group inequality comparison captures the extent to which differences between groups account for the overall inequality of individuals. These concepts can be used to measure the degree of segregation, clustering, and polarization between groups. In order to illustrate the merit of these concepts and their joint application to understanding group based inequality we provide an example using Demographic and Health Surveys data for five societies. It may be seen that the choice of measures is greatly consequential in applied work. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Despite two decades of rapid growth, indigenous Chileans are reported to face high poverty rates. However, non-representative surveys provide imprecise estimates of income, so quantifying poverty and inequality has been difficult. This paper estimates poverty and inequality using poverty mapping. In contrast to the previous studies, however, we use ethnicity rather than geography as a basis for disaggregation. We find that indigenous Chileans are indeed poorer, although we also find significant heterogeneity among ethnic groups. In addition, income inequality is generally lower for indigenous groups. These reliable estimates of poverty and inequality may improve the antipoverty targeting criteria used in Chile. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: We explore the suitability of the adult Body Mass Index (BMI) to measure health and nutritional inequalities between and within households. The paper applies a macro analysis comparing female BMIs at the country level and a micro-analysis comparing females’ and males’ BMI in Vietnam. At macro level, we estimated an analogue of the Kuznets curve finding a U-shaped relation between development (Human Development Index) and health and nutritional inequality (female BMI). At micro level, we use the panel data characteristics of the Vietnam dataset and show how income improvements registered in the 1990s benefited males considerably more than females. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper examines the trend in income inequality and poverty among the self-employed workers in Mexico during 1984–2002, a period of rapid trade liberalization. In the decade following the liberalization, inequality and poverty among the self-employed increased; as the economy stabilized inequality started to go down, but poverty kept increasing. To understand the observed changes the inequality and poverty indices are decomposed into within and between group components. Rising returns to skilled labor, regional differences in impact of liberalization and sectoral shifts in employment are important factors in explaining the trends in both inequality and poverty. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper estimates trends in absolute poverty in urban China using the Chinese Household Income Project surveys. Poverty incidence curves are plotted, showing lower poverty in 2002 than in 1988 irrespective of the poverty line chosen. Incomes of the poorest fell during 1988–95, contributing to a rise in inequality. However, inequality has been fairly constant thereafter. Models of the determination of income and poverty reveal widening differentials by education, sex, and Communist Party membership. Income from government anti-poverty programs has little impact on poverty, which has fallen almost entirely due to overall economic growth rather than redistribution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the effect of economic and political inequality on institutions. The current understanding suggests that unequal societies develop exploitative and inefficient institutions. Empirical research—which is scant, and has mainly concentrated at cross-national level—supports, to some extent, the existence of an inverse relationship between inequality and institutions, but more analysis is needed. Future empirical research should undertake country, state, and micro-level analysis, which are a necessary complement to aggregate level studies. The effect of inequality could also take place indirectly, through the influence of inequality on democratization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper discusses the interface of anthropological research on land with policy positions across formative periods—from the colonial period through to the present as land tenure reform has repeatedly become a development priority; and recent research on intensifying competition over land, its intersection with competition over legitimate authority, new types of land transfers, the role of claims of indigeneity or autochthony in land conflicts, and the challenges of increasing social inequality and of commodification of land for analysis and for land reform. Anthropology is best known for its intensive fieldwork—deep immersion in social situations and long-term involvement with social groups—which produces the rich ethnographies that inform debates about land. Equally important is the conceptual contribution by anthropologists in dialogue with the ethnographies as well as with other researchers—the rethinking of concepts and theories used to analyze land relations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: More than half of those who emigrate from developing countries move to other developing countries, yet there have been few studies of the impact of this South–South migration. In this paper, we examine the impact of migration from one developing country, Nicaragua, on the labor market in another developing country, Costa Rica. We find little evidence to support the hypothesis that Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica was an important factor contributing to falling earnings, increased inequality or stagnating poverty in Costa Rica. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: In this paper, we use the tools offered by the recent literature on multidimensional inequality measurement to investigate the evolution of the inequality in well-being across different countries during 1975–2000. We focus on three important dimensions of life: standard of living, health, and education. Inequality in the three dimensions shows a different trend during 1975–2000. We propose a flexible measure of well-being to quantify the evolution of overall intercountry well-being inequality. The empirical results are sensitive to different normative choices on the trade-offs between the different dimensions. Especially the concave transformation of income turns out to be decisive for the evolution of world inequality in well-being. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We investigate the impact of a natural disaster on social capital. • We use an original dataset collected in rural Ecuador a few months after a volcanic eruption. • We provide suggestive evidence that individuals use the shock to free ride solidarity mechanisms. • The magnitude of this effect decreases with the level of wealth inequality and vanishes in the most unequal communities. This paper investigates the impact of natural disasters on social capital. By heterogeneously affecting people in a community, natural disasters create a temporary information asymmetry on their post-disaster income. Using an original dataset collected in rural Ecuador, we provide suggestive evidence that households use this asymmetric information to pretend to be poorer than they actually are, in order to escape from solidarity mechanisms in the aftermath of the shock. The magnitude of this effect decreases with the level of wealth inequality in the community and vanishes in the most unequal communities where bilateral cooperation is rather fostered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The question of how economic and socio-cultural heterogeneity impacts commons management has been receiving increasing attention, but without resolution. However, the issue is increasingly important in a globalizing world. This paper builds upon recent theoretical works to provide a clearer understanding of the conditions under which we might expect economic inequality to have positive, or negative, effects. Of critical importance to the argument is the distinction between the problem of collective action, and the problem of providing collective goods. A synthetic set of predictions is subsequently developed and tested with a comparative analysis of case studies of fisheries and irrigation systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]