Structural Inequality: Origins and Quests for Solutions in Old Worlds and New

Inequality stirs passions across the globe today, figures prominently in political discourse, generates fervid debate and popular protest, and is the theme of widely read scholarly publications. This book contributes to the burgeoning global dialogues and literature on economic inequality in a new way, identifying and addressing what may be called bedrock types of inequality whose origins are rooted in the history and culture of each country. These kinds of inequality strongly influence income distributions by strata, can be resistant to change, and require solutions beyond fiscal tax and expenditure policies. And it places the findings firmly in the realm of the relevant studies on the topics covered. The countries analyzed include South Korea, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Estonia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Yemen.

Roger D. Norton currently holds a joint appointment in Texas A&M University’s (USA) Agricultural Economics Department as a Research Professor and the University’s Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Development. At the Borlaug Institute he is Director for the Center for Coffee Research and Education and concurrently Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. As principal investigator in the Institute he has led three coffee development projects in Central America, including one that is current, and two projects for other products, one in the Dominican Republic and the other for twelve countries worldwide. Professor Norton earned a Ph.D. in Economics at Johns Hopkins University