Inequality

Equal land distribution in pre-industrial East Asia paradoxically drove poverty by enabling higher fertility among landowning households, creating population pressure that depressed wages. This dynamic explains why East Asia diverged from Western Eur...

South Africa remains the most unequal country in the world despite the end of apartheid thirty years ago. Racial inequalities have declined but these gains have largely benefited a new Black elite. Government redistribution is substantial and has ach...

Commodity booms are often seen as development opportunities, but new evidence from Brazil shows they can deepen inequality and reshape consumption in unexpected ways.

Inequality pushes poor households to sacrifice nutrition for ‘little luxuries’, reshaping basic needs and worsening malnutrition. The implications for poverty programmes are large.

The underrepresentation of Southern researchers in academic journals and conferences impacts the global development research and policy agenda. Initiatives that address the skewed composition of editorial boards, the barriers faced by Southern researchers in attending conferences, and that support international research collaborations are needed.

Evidence from India shows that inequality between children starts at home, when parents decide how to split investments in education between their children

New measures of export and import exposure at the individual level show that international trade increases earnings inequality in Ecuador

In developing countries, women with at least one sibling who died in childhood face 39% higher odds of losing a child themselves

Centralised procurement by the public sector leads to lower drug prices, but the price reduction is smaller when the supply side is more concentrated