Organized by:
International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs)
(http://www.networkideas.org)
The workshop was followed by an international conference
on 'Economic Openness and Income Inequality: Policy
Options for Developing Countries in the New Millennium’
during the 26th-27th of August 2006, again in local
collaboration with the Shanghai Administration Institute
(SAI). The conference had about 90 participants from
22 countries.
Beginning by looking at global trends from both a
theoretical and an empirical perspective through 5
papers presented during the first two sessions, the
conference followed up with region specific sessions
on the issue of income inequality and trade liberalization.
The regions covered were China, Asia including India
and East Asia, Latin America and Africa. China received
a lot of attention from both international and Chinese
scholars because of its current conjuncture in terms
of high growth but a critical situation vis a vis
income and employment inequalities. The conference
ended with a panel discussion on the key issues that
the papers brought attention to and what it implied
it terms of policy advocacy.
The topic is of great relevance in the current conjuncture
as the question of rising inequality globally and
more importantly, within countries and especially
in the developing world has dogged the current stage
of globalization and the widespread adoption of neo-liberal
policies. This phenomenon has been witnessed not only
in least developed countries of Africa, crises plagued
Latin America and the transition economies but in
the growing and even thriving countries in Asia. Growing
inequality is obviously a serious economic problem
that needs to be addressed not only in terms of redistributive
justice but because it undermines the achievement
of economic growth in terms of what growth can actually
do for the well being of the people. Simultaneously,
it also generates feelings of discontent and marginalisation
among people which ultimately threatens the process
of growth itself. In countries where there is no significant
economic growth or negative growth, this phenomenon
has an even more catastrophic impact. A large part
of the process of growing inequality across borders
has been an outcome of the bigger policy framework
of economic reform and growing openness to international
trade and finance, but it has also been significantly
affected by domestic macroeconomic and other policies.
While governments in some of those countries, among
them China, have undertaken some initiatives to address
this issue, much of the developing world still needs
to focus on this issue, explore its nature and causes
and devise a multilateral policy framework to cope
with this problem.
Economic assessments of the impact of globalization
differ, inter alia, on the nature and determinants
of inter-country and intra-country distributional
outcomes in recent years. There is no consensus on
how such inequalities have moved and on what influences
changes in such inequalities in either direction.
Further, such differences on intra-country inequality
relate not only to the poor performers among the developing
countries, but even to the rapidly expanding economies
in Asia. There are three related issues of relevance
in this context: (i) the relationship between the
increasingly homogenous patterns of growth across
countries and the adoption of policies that emphasize
economic openness and the primacy of markets; (ii)
the relationship between this pattern of growth and
distributive outcomes; and (iii) the trends in inequality
and relative deprivation in recent years. The sessions
in the workshop and conference addressed these themes,
with focus on the alternatives that are necessary
and feasible in the current conjuncture and the foreseeable
future.
Below is a list of the
papers and speakers during the conference:
Day 1, Session 1
• Chair: Wang Zhiping,
Director, Economics Department, Shanghai Administration
Institute, Shanghai, China
• Wang Guoping, Economics Department, Shanghai Administration
Institute, Shanghai, China: 'Reflections on the Inequality
of Income Distribution’
• Prabhat Patnaik, Professor, Centre for Economic
Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, India and also Vice Chairman, Planning
Commission, Kerala, India: 'Trade, Disproportionality
and Retrogression’
• Andrea Giovanni Cornia, Professor, Department of
Economics, University of Florence, Italy: 'Intra-country
Changes in the Distribution of Income and Wealth during
the Last Forty Years’
• Discussant: Li Shi, Professor, School of Economics
and Business, Beijing Normal University, China
Day 1, Session 2
• Saul Keifman, Professor, Department of Economics,
University of Buenes Aires, Argentina: 'Economic Openness
and Inequality: Deconstructing Some Neoliberal Fallacies’
• Andong Zhu, Assistant Professor, School of Humanities
and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China: 'State-Owned Enterprises and Income Inequality:
Evidence from Mixed Economies’
• Discussant: Abhijit Sen, Professor, Centre for Economic
Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, India and also Member, Central Planning
Commission, India
Day 1, Session 3
• Chair: Cui Zhiyuan,
Professor, School of Public Policy and Management,
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
• Angang Hu, Professor, School of Public Policy and
Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and
Director, Center for China studies, Chinese Academy
Of Sciences, Beijing, China: 'Regional Change of Human
Development in China (1982-2003)’
• Wang Sangui, Institute of Agricultural Economics,
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, also, Head,
China Poverty Research Association 'Community-based
Development and Poverty Alleviation: An Evaluation
of China’s Poor Village Investment Program’
• Wu Guobao, Director of Poverty and Development Finance
Division, Rural Development Institute, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences, Beijing, China: 'Does Inequality
in Access to Credit Affect Farmers' Income Inequality?’
• Dic Lo, Professor, School of Economics, Renmin University,
Beijing, China and at School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, UK : 'Making Sense
of China's Economic Transformation’
Session 3 Continued
Panel Discussion on China: Response
and More
• Chair: Cui Zhiyuan,
Professor, School of Public Policy and Management,
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
• Li Shi, Professor, School of Economics and Business,
Beijing Normal University, China
• Zhao Renwei, Professor of Economics, Institute of
Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing,
China
Day 2, Session 1
• Abhijit Sen, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies
and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India and also Member, Central Planning Commission,
India and Himanshu, Fellow (Economics), The Centre
de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi, India: 'Recent
Evidence on Poverty and Income Distribution in India’
• Medhi Krongkaew, Professor of Economics and Director,
Center for Poverty Studies, School of Development
Economics, National Institute of Development Administration
(NIDA), Bangkok Thailand and Ragayah Mat Zin, Director,
Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS),
National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia: 'Income
Distribution and Sustainable Economic Development
in East Asia: A Comparative Analysis’
• Discussant: Francis Cripps, Alphametrics Ltd, Bangkok,
Thailand
Day 2, Session 2
• Carlos Medeiros, Professor, Department of Economics,
Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro ( Federal University
of Rio De Janeiro ), Brazil: 'Growth Patterns, Income
Distributions and Poverty: Lessons from the Latin
American Experience’
• Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Senior Economic Affairs
Officer, Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations: 'Social Welfare
and Protection: Latin America’s Main Challenges for
the XXI Century’
• Charles Abugre Akelyira, Head of Policy and Advocacy,
Christian Aid, UK, (from Ghana): 'Macro Policies and
the Development Project in Africa’
• Discussant: Praveen Jha, Associate Professor, Centre
for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India
Panel Discussion
'Economic Openness and Income Inequality: Policy Options
for Developing Countries in the New Millennium'
• Moderator: C P Chandrasekhar, Professor, Centre
for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India, and is also a member
of the Executive Committee of IDEAs
• Angang Hu, Professor, School of Public Policy and
Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and
Director, Center for China studies, Chinese Academy
Of Sciences, Beijing, China
• Prabhat Patnaik, Professor, Centre for Economic
Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, India and also Vice Chairman, Planning
Commission, Kerala, India
• Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Professor, Department of
Economics, University of Florence, Italy
• Jayati Ghosh, Professor, Centre for Economic Studies
and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India, who is also the Executive Secretary of IDEAs
• Franklin Serrano, Professor, Department of Economics,
Universidad Federal de Rio de Janeiro ( Federal University
of Rio De Janeiro ), Brazil
September 14 , 2006.
|