Combatting inequality during and after Covid-19

Rate, review and download our podcast

Inequality is emerging as the “biggest policy challenge” during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, with the World Bank estimating that extreme global poverty is to rise for the first time in over 20 years.

“The coronavirus pandemic is possibly the first so-called ‘global event’”, said Professor Branko Milanovic in the latest EBRD Economics Talk.

Sir Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize laureate, also took part in the discussion on the nature of inequality and how it will be aggravated by the pandemic.

EBRD Chief Economist Beata Javorcik sounded the alarm about coronavirus’s impact on emerging markets across the EBRD regions.

What’s next? How can our societies be made more equal? What are the roles of the state and the private sector in combatting inequality?

Professor Angus Deaton is a Nobel Prize laureate in Economics and Senior Scholar at the School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.  His latest book “Deaths of Despair” is co-written with Anne Case and is a ground-breaking account of how the flaws in capitalism are fatal for America’s working class.

Professor Branko Milanovic is a Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a senior fellow at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality.

Beata Javorcik is the EBRD Chief Economist and Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford.

The discussion was joined by EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso and chaired by EBRD Communications Managing Director Jonathan Charles.

Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDEconTalks