Abstract
Amartya Sen's famous study of famines found that people died not because of a lack of food availability in a country but because some people lacked entitlements to that food. Is a similar situation now the case for middle-income countries, meaning that national resources are available but are not used to end poverty? This chapter argues that (i) MICs account for a large proportion of global poverty; (ii) most MICs have the financial capacity to end poverty at least at lower poverty lines. Our findings provide a rationale for a stronger consideration of some national redistribution for purely instrumental reasons: to reduce or end global poverty sooner than waiting for growth. Our findings also support the extension of Sen's theory of famines to global poverty meaning global poverty is increasingly a matter of national inequality.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Trapped in the Middle? Developmental Challenges for Middle-Income Countries |
Editors | Jose Antonio Alonso and Jose Antonio Ocampo |
Place of Publication | Oxford |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 139-157 |
Edition | 1st |
ISBN (Print) | 978-0-19-885277-3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |