• “We need to think deeply about what economic development is and who it is for; and, engage the larger society in that conversation.”


    Dr. David T. Barnard
    President and Vice-Chancellor
    University of Manitoba

  • “Rising income inequality undercuts the trust that is essential for the market system to work.”


    Art DeFehr
    President and CEO, Palliser Furniture.

  • “Investing in people in the new economy is now not just morally sound, but economically rational”

    Alan Freeman
    Cultural Economist


  • “Organizations and societies in which the top few appropriate most of the value are like inverted pyramids – inherently unstable”

    Dr. Hari Bapuji
    Associate Professor, University of Manitoba


  • “The present crisis has overturned many accepted truths: that poverty matters but inequality doesn't is one of the more important.”

    Radhika Desai
    Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba


  • “The income gap between rich and poor, between skilled and unskilled workers, has been rising in both developed and less developed countries for a number of years. The trend is disturbing and we must find a way to turn this trend around.”

    Michael Benarroch
    Dean, I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba



Friday, March 29, 2013

Human Development Report 2013 and Inequality

By BEIF Team



The Human Development Report 2013 has recently been published by the UNDP. While noting the tremendous growth in human development due to the rise of developing economies on the global stage, the report also sounds a few caution bells. A few excerpts from the report are below:


“Inequality reduces the pace of human development and in some cases my even prevent it entirely. Globally, there have been much greater reductions in inequality in health and education in the last two decades than in income”

“Growth has frequently been much more effective at reducing poverty in countries with low income inequality than in countries with high income inequality”


In a ranking of countries on human development, Norway tops the list, followed by Australia and the US. But, when human development is adjusted to inequality in a society, the rank of the US falls from 3 to 16. Another notable country is South Korea, which slips from a rank of 12 on human development to a rank of 28 on inequality adjusted human development. Clearly, countries can better improve human development if they are more equal.


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