Across the developing world, poverty has been decreasing, but unevenly, and inequality is increasingly identified as a serious burden on development. In recent years, leading economists have contributed to big picture views on what is behind development and poverty reduction: influential popular books have been produced by thinkers such as Amartya Sen, Bill Easterly, Paul Collier, Jeffrey Sachs, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Joseph Stiglitz, Angus Deaton and others.

In this lecture, Stefan Dercon will reflect on these contrasting views: how they view the causes of poverty, what to do about it and how inequality fits into these views. In particular, he will explore the role of inequality as a cause of poverty persistence, and how to overcome this. The implications for development thinking and policy will be discussed too.