Gasoline, Guns, and Giveaways: Is There New Capacity for Redistribution to End Three Quarters of Global Poverty?

Abstract

Amartya Sen's famous study of famines found that people died not because of a lack of food availability in a country but because some people lacked entitlements to that food. Is a similar situation now the case for global poverty, meaning that national resources are available but not being used to end poverty? This paper argues that approximately three-quarters of global poverty, at least at the lower poverty lines, could now be eliminated-in principle-via redistribution of nationally available resources in terms of cash transfers funded by new taxation and the reallocation of public spending (from fossil fuel subsidies and 'surplus' military spending). We argue that the findings provide a rationale for a stronger consideration of some national redistribution for purely instrumental reasons: to reduce or end global poverty quicker than waiting for growth. We find that at lower poverty lines ending global poverty may now be within the financial capacities of most national governments of developing countries either in the form of potential new taxation or reallocation of existing public finances though this is not the case at higher poverty lines. In summary, reducing global poverty at lower poverty lines is increasingly a matter of national inequality.

Uma Teoria Crítica Para O Desenvolvimento À Luz Dos Direitos Humanos

“…Para completar o cenário, pesquisas indicam que três quartos da extrema pobreza mundial poderiam ser eliminadas imediatamente usando recursos já disponíveis, aumentando a tributação e reduzindo gastos militares e outros gastos regressivos (HOY, 2016). Para satisfazer as necessidades básicas do conjunto da população do planeta, bastariam 4% das duzentas e vinte e cinco maiores fortunas do mundo, para satisfazer as necessidades sanitárias e de nutrição bastariam treze bilhões de dólares, ou seja, 13% do que se gasta anualmente nos Estados Unidos e na Europa em perfume (QUIJANO, 2002).…”

Energy subsidies, international aid, and the politics of reform

“…More recently, Hoy and Sumner (2016) have calculated fossil fuel subsidies as a share of the poverty gap 1 for all developing countries for which such data exist. They show that such subsidies are equal to almost 70 per cent of the poverty gap for these countries.…”

Global inequality and global poverty since the Cold War: how robust is the optimistic narrative?

“…Figure 5). A $2.50 line is an approximation of the average poverty lines of all developing countries (see discussion in Hoy and Sumner, 2016). The median poverty line of all developing countries in the Jolliffe and Prydz (2016) dataset is $2.79 and population weighted mean is $2.46.…”