The Analysis of Inequality in the Bretton Woods Institutions
This paper assesses the evolution of thinking, analysis, and discourse about inequality in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since their inception in 1944, on the basis of bibliometric analysis, a reading of the literature, and per...
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| Language: | English English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099756508222213767/IDU0de360d49033ec04018091d908ba95ec10f7d http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37918 |
| Summary: | This paper assesses the evolution of
thinking, analysis, and discourse about inequality in the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund since their
inception in 1944, on the basis of bibliometric analysis, a
reading of the literature, and personal experience. Whereas
the Fund was largely unconcerned with economic inequality
until the 2000s but has shown a rapidly growing interest
since then, the Bank’s approach has been characterized by
ebbs and flows, with five phases being apparent. The degree
of interest in inequality in the two institutions appears to
be largely determined by the prevailing intellectual profile
of the topic in academic research, particularly in
economics, and by ideological shifts in major shareholder
countries, propagated downward internally by senior
management. Data availability, albeit partly endogenous,
also plays a role. Looking ahead, World Bank and
International Monetary Fund researchers continue to have an
important role to play, despite a much more crowded field in
inequality research. The paper suggests that this role
involves holding firm to an emphasis on inequality “at the
bottom” and highlighting four themes that may deserve
special attention. |
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