Dynamics and Income Distribution: The Selected Essays of Irma Adelman, Volume II: 002 (Economists of the Twentieth Century series)

Dynamics and Income Distribution brings together Irma Adelman’s pioneering applications of econometrics, as well as papers on the poverty and income distribution implications of growth and development. The volume combines some early papers on business cycles and long swings with other pieces focusing on just economic development.

With a firm emphasis on the dynamics of income inequality, this volume includes empirical study of how inequality changes with economic development and the conceptual development of dynamic indices of income inequality. Professor Adelman’s papers draw on quantitative simulation models and the experience of specific countries to discuss policies to alleviate poverty and reduce inequality. The author argues that trickle-down processes are not likely to reduce poverty sufficiently rapidly. Land reform and the equal access to education need to be focused in order to generate the initial conditions for equalizing economic development. Economic development and poverty reduction, she suggests, require an emphasis on education, on institutions determining access to jobs and resources, and on labour-intensive types of economic growth.

With its companion volume, Institutions and Development Strategies, this collection of selected essays makes a significant contribution by improving access to Irma Adelman’s pioneering work on the economics and policy of development.

The late Irma Adelman, formerly Professor, Thomas Forsyth Chair, University of California, Berkeley, US