Rising inequality presents policy makers with social, economic and political challenges and is linked to social ills like crime, poor health outcomes and radical nationalism. Over the past few decades, forces like globalisation and technological change have widened inequality but the recent coronavirus pandemic has intensified the acceleration of inequality between and within countries as well as pushed poverty levels higher. Two of the world’s leading growth and development economists, Professors Pinelopi Goldberg and Dani Rodrik, discuss the problem and consequences of rising inequality, and what tools and policies can be deployed to address it.

The session will be moderated by Danny Quah, Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

Pinelopi Goldberg is the former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University. She is an applied microeconomist drawn to policy-relevant questions in trade and development. She has exploited a broad set of methodological approaches – ranging from estimation of structural industry equilibrium models to reduced form techniques – to provide insights into the determinants and effects of trade policies, trade and inequality, intellectual property rights protection in developing countries, exchange rate passthrough, pricing to market, and international price discrimination.

Dani Rodrik is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is an economist whose research revolves around globalisation, economic growth and development, and political economy. His current work focuses on how to create more inclusive economies, in developed and developing societies. He is currently President-Elect of the International Economic Association, and co-director of Economics for Inclusive Prosperity.

Danny Quah is the Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research interests include income inequality, economic growth, and international economic relations. His current research takes an economic approach to world order – with focus on global power shift and the rise of the east, and alternative models of global power relations.

Watch the full lecture here: