Addressing inequality in South Asia

The extent of inequality, and what to do about it, are among the most hotly debated issues in economics. Every faith and ideology has normative views on how much inequality is tolerable, or desirable. And to complicate matters, equality along a dimension that matters for some members of society often entails inequality in some respect that others care about. Debates on inequality seem to become more intense in periods of rapid structural transformation, both in advanced economies and in developing countries. As jobs migrate abroad, or people move to cities, or a modern sector emerges, the entire distribution of well-being is shaken. Age-old rankings that seemed cast in stone become compromised, new fortunes are made sometimes quickly and the entire social fabric comes under stress.