Poverty and Global Inequality

Week 2 Seminar

Seminar activities

Reading
Economic Development, Michael Todaro and Stephen Smith,
Pearson, 12th Edition, 2014 (p# 60-63, p# 216-263)
Various Economist articles

1. Whats in the papers? TRIBE/ group coursework prep

Working in your groups Use TRIBE to find a global economic issue to

discuss (or draw on an article or other news item you have come
across this week)
http://www.scoop.it/t/insights-into-the-global-economy

With reference to the article you have chosen discuss the following
1. Why is this an issue significant to the global economy?
2. Who does this issue affect?
3. What are the various sides to the argument?
4. How can a compromise/solution be met? Whos
responsibility is it to find a solution.

Review of lecture

Absolute poverty
Relative poverty
Chronic Poverty (Ultrapoverty)
Kuznets Ratio
Lorenz curve
Gini coefficient

Questions for discussion

1. What is inequality and how do we measure it?

2. What is the difference between wealth inequality and income

inequality?

3. What are the causes of poverty?

4. Whats so bad about extreme inequality?

5. Analyze three limiting cases of dualistic development using

Lorenz curves.

Modern-sector Modern-sector Traditional-sector

enlargement growth enrichment growth enlargement growth
typology typology typology

6. Explain Kuznetsz Inverted-U Hypothesis using Kuznets Curve.

7. What is the difference between multidimensional poverty and

income poverty?
8. Who are mostly affected by poverty? Men or women?
9. How different is the magnitude of poverty in rural and urban
areas?
10. What evidence do we have that globalization has benefitted
the poor and helped reduce inequality?