I happen to disagree with Milanovic on some of his points. However, it is true that parts of Western Europe have increased equality, among the few places in the world where that has happened, even as it has gotten more unequal in UK and US. Branko, of course, has a book on what has happened in the former socialist world, _Income, Inequality, and Poverty during the Transition from Planned to Market Economy_, World Bank, 1998, which is simply devastating.
I don't think there is much point in complaining about his selection of years. The hard fact is that data on this topic is only sporadically gathered and is very crummy. I have looked at a lot of this stuff, and some of it is truly godawful. Actually, among his other virtues, Milanovic is one of the world's leading experts on the data and data sources on income distribution. This is a very difficult topic to study. Governments do not like to gather this particular data item, not most of them anyway. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. <rosserjb at jmu.edu> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 12:12 PM Subject: Re: WB and IMF
>Patrick,
> OK. Please list some specific projects or actions by
>the WB that have damaged less developed countries.
>As with to Dennis, no general mumbling or rhetoric.
>Specific cases, please. I am very open on this one.
>Barkley Rosser
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Patrick Bond <pbond at wn.apc.org>
>To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Date: Thursday, May 25, 2000 6:06 AM
>Subject: Re: WB and IMF
>
>
>> From: "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb at jmu.edu>
>> BTW, the best study on global income inequality was put
>> out by a WB staffer, as you know, Branko Milanovic (we should
>> probably keep our voices down so that he does not get fired...!!!).
>
>The best? Hey, I just spent a few days with Branko in Helsinki last
>week. I agree he's a nice guy and an extremely good speaker. The
>study you mention is a comparison of 1988 and 1993
>international household surveys, so it's rather limited, though it
>does point to exceptionally high Ginis in many parts of the world.
>He didn't seem particularly predisposed to questioning the broader
>WashCon parameters though. Here are a couple of his paper's
>concluding sentences:
>
>* "One can conjuncture [sic] that such a high inequality is
>sustainable [sic] precisely because world [sic] is not unified, and
>rich people do not mingle, meet or even know about the existence of
>the poor (other than in a most abstract way)." [This worries me; I'd
>rather see an enlightened economist worming away at the inside of the
>WB trying to scare the hell out of Wolfy and the others by
>predicting the unsustainability of inequality and the revolutionary
>or barbaric impulses that inequality creates, wouldn't you?] ...
>
>* "Western Europe, North America and Oceana, and the Latin American
>Countries show what may be deemed `desirable' income distribution
>changes between 1988 and 1993. The absolute importance of both
>`class' (within country inequality) and `place' (between country
>inequality) decreased, and the overall Gini went marginally down in
>both regions." [I just got Doug's latest hard-copy LBO in the post
>today, where he argues there's been a pretty steady income Gini rise
>within the US. Arno Tausch was saying the same is true in Europe. So
>I don't know where Branko got his conclusion, and when I asked he
>seemed to concede a bit of space there.]
>
>Aside from David Ellerman, what leading economists are there now at
>the WB who are willing and able to generate vaguely progressive
>arguments, Barclay?
>
>I endorse Doug's critique of the rest of your presumptions, Barclay.
>I'll be happy to send some forthcoming articles to you offlist to see
>if the evidence is convincing.
>Patrick Bond
>email: pbond at wn.apc.org * phone: 2711-614-8088
>home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa
>work: University of the Witwatersrand
>Graduate School of Public and Development Management
>PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa
>email: bondp at zeus.mgmt.wits.ac.za
>phone: 2711-488-5917 * fax: 2711-484-2729
>
>
>