What is the kind of institutions that affect economic inequalities? Using a database on national income inequality for 73 non-European countries, we show that 'good governance' not only contributes to the level of income but also to a more equal distribution by increasing the income share of the...

To what extent did the colonial public policy influence the current regional inequalities in the French- speaking West Africa? This paper uses the differences in development outcomes across the areas of the former French West Africa to show the existence of colonial long term effects on...

The paper proposes an overview of the links between trade openness and international migration. Written in 1997, it is reedited here as a tribute to Geroges Tapinos, died suddendly on 20 November 2000. The paper argues that free trade policies presently proposed by developed countries to...

I propose a personal reading of some theories of social justice at a moment when the issue of equality or equity appears to be back on the ‘development agenda’. Nowadays the term equity tends to be most often associated with the equality of opportunity principle. After having briefly...

The World Bank’s World Development Report 2006 addresses Equity and Development. It defines equity as respect for equal opportunities combined with the avoidance of absolute deprivation. Even though justice theories have long been interested in equity (given that equality of opportunity is one...

European Enlightenment thinkers were right in stressing the political dimension of inequality, rather than referring to "natural differences" as some others did after them in the 19th or 20th centuries. Drawing from recent theoretical and empirical contributions in social sciences and in...

Multiple and often competing conceptualizations of culture have offered development thinking both a framework and a vocabulary for distinguishing one group of people from another in terms of their differing systems of meaning, patterns of behaviour, or levels of technology. They have also...

Commentaire du "Rapport sur le développement dans le monde 2006: Equité et développement".