Taxes, Transfers, Inequality and Poverty in the Developing World

Prof. Nora Lustig, Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and Director of the Commitment to Equity Institute (CEQI) at Tulane University, conducted a Development Policy Seminar on Taxes, Transfers, Inequality and Poverty in the Developing World today in New York. Her presentation focused on the redistributive impact of fiscal policy in some twenty developing countries. According to Lustig, while fiscal policy practically always reduces inequality, this is not the case with poverty. Indeed, fiscal impoverishment — poor people becoming poorer as a result of net taxes — can be quite significant in low-income countries.