The title of the lecture is ‘The World is not Flat: Inequality and Injustice in our Global Economy’. The reference to ‘flatness’ alludes to the more level playing field due to globalization that has enabled China, India, and others to start catching up with the living standards of rich countries. But as Birdsall points out, the world is far from flat. In particular, unequal opportunities exist and persist both at the level of households within countries and at the level of nations in a global context; indeed the same forces of globalization are likely to exacerbate these inequalities.
Nancy Birdsall is the founding President of the Center for Global Development. Prior to launching the center, Birdsall served for three years as Senior Associate and Director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her work at Carnegie focused on issues of globalization and inequality, as well as on the reform of the international financial institutions. From 1993 to 1998 as Executive Vice-President of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional development banks, she oversaw a US$30 billion public and private loan portfolio. Before joining the Inter-American Development Bank, she spent 14 years in research, policy, and management positions at the World Bank, most recently as Director of the Policy Research Department.
The Lecture addresses one of the core issues in development: how can low income countries achieve faster rates of economic growth? Reviewing the lessons to be drawn from recent history, particularly with regard to Latin America and Asia, Rodrik...
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