In the early 1800s, the Prussian scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt wandered the streets of Latin America and wrote of his astonishment at the misery and wealth; the "nakedness" and the “luxury", the "immense inequality of fortune." Today, that image of inequality endures. The region, along with Sub-Saharan Africa, is the most unequal in the world. But things are … [Read more...] about Latin America: The Story Behind Falling Inequality
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Inequality and the Parent-Child Relationship
From the first words that parents exchange with their children to the games they play, the intellectual and emotional stimulation parents provide is critical. Especially in the early years, sustained and effective parenting can lead to greater intelligence, sociability and mental health. Thus the shock in the mid-1990s when researchers in the United States found that by age … [Read more...] about Inequality and the Parent-Child Relationship
The Skills Gap: Holding Latin America Back
From a certain optic, advances in education in Latin America and the Caribbean have been remarkable. In 1900, only one in three children attended primary school. Very few advanced to secondary school. Today, primary education in the region is nearly universal and enrollment in secondary school stands at nearly 80%. Unfortunately, those gains in access to education have not … [Read more...] about The Skills Gap: Holding Latin America Back
Slavery, Inequality and Crime
In 1851, two years before the official abolition of slavery in New Granada (now Colombia), authorities there conducted a census that was to provide the 19th century's most accurate picture of the slaveholding economy. This was a snapshot of sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations, gold mines and numerous slaves. Today, in a testimony to the lingering effects of slavery, that … [Read more...] about Slavery, Inequality and Crime
Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit
By Julián Messina, Francisco H.G. Ferreira and Sergio Firpo Long one of the world’s most unequal countries, Brazil surprised pundits by recording a massive reduction in household income inequality in the last couple of decades. Between 1995 and 2012, the country’s Gini coefficient for household incomes fell by seven points, from 0.59 to 0.52. (For comparison, all of the … [Read more...] about Falling Inequality: A Brazilian Whodunnit