Category: Blogs

Please click here to read Nora Lustig’s review of Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo’s recent book Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty

Please click here to link to the most recent working paper from Tulane University’s Economics department. Published this month and coauthored with George Gray Molina, Sean Higgins, Wilson Jimenez, Veronica Paz, Claudiney Pereira, Carola Pessino, John Scott, and Ernesto Yanez, Working Paper 1216 estimates the impact direct taxes, indirect takes and subsidies, and social spending on inequality and poverty by applying a standard tax and benet incidence analysis.

Please click here to access the World Bank’s Inequality in Focus article by Nora Lustig, “Taxes, Transfers, and Income Redistribution in Latin America,” which was published by the Poverty Reduction and Equity Department.

Please click here to access the Spring 2010 Americas Quarterly article by Nora Lustig, “A Matter of Transparency: The Top One Percent in the Americas.”

As part of the reform of the World Committee on Food Security (CFS), the High-level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) was established in 2010, for providing credible science and knowledge based advice to underpin policy formulation. Nora Lustig was a member of the team who wrote the report on “Social Protection for Food Security.”

To see the report, click here

On May 26, 2012 I presented a paper at LASA 2012 held in San Francisco: “The Rise and Fall of Income Inequality in Mexico: 1989-2010.”

Abstract: Inequality in Mexico rose between 1989 and 1994 and declined between 1994 and 2010. We examine the role of market forces (demand and supply of labour by skill), institutional factors (minimum wages and unionization rate), and public policy (cash transfers) in explaining changes in inequality. We apply the “re-centered influence function” method to decompose changes in hourly wages into characteristics and returns. The main driver is changes in returns. Returns rose (1989-1994) due to institutional factors and labour demand. Returns declined (1994-2006) due to changes in supply and-to a lesser extent-in demand; institutional factors were not relevant. Government transfers contributed to the decline in inequality, especially after 2000.

To download presentation click here.

To download paper click here

On May 15th, Nora Lustig Participated in the “Winning the War on Inequality and Poverty in Latin America” co-hosted by the Inter-American Dialogue and Tulane University. The conference honored Enrique V. Iglesias for his contributions to economic and social advancements in Latin America and the Caribbean. Click here for more information on this conference.

Nora gave a presentation on the results of CEQ, “Taxes, Transfers, Inequality, and Poverty: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru,” click here to download her presentation.

In the photo above, Nora is seated with Robert Zoellick (outgoing World Bank President) during his remarks in honor of Enrique Iglesias.