On April 15 and 16, 2008, the 2008 Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Network Conference was held at World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to discuss the theme, “Inclusive and Sustainable Growth”. The Conference included more than 25 sessions on a variety of topics, such as the Bank’s economic policy, climate change, and good governance, among many others.
The session entitled, “Equality of Opportunity in the Latin America and the Caribbean” was held on April 16th, 2008. Marcelo Giugale, Director, Latin America and Caribbean Poverty Reduction, World Bank, suggested that social policy should be examined in terms of equality of opportunities versus equality of outcomes.
Pranab Bardhan, Professor of Economics, University of California at Berkeley, discussed redistributed policy issues affecting equality of opportunity, internalized constraints, and political reservations.
Francisco Ferreira, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, introduced a model to define and measure the equality of opportunities based on circumstances versus effort.
Ricardo Paes de Barros, Researcher, Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada, Brazil, proposed a model to measure distance from universal access to basic opportunities versus consequences and to modify coverage rates to incorporate inequality.
John E. Roemer, Professor of Political Science and Economics, Yale University, identified measures of economic development and the difficult transition from utilitarianism to equality of opportunity.
During the discussion, Roemer expanded on the distinction between effort and circumstances, Ferreira addressed the role of circumstances, Bardhan stressed the need to address failures, and Paes de Barros addressed opportunity costs across different circumstance groups.
Home
> Learning
& Knowledge > BSPAN
> Presentation
High Speed
Low Speed
