And it would help to settle a crucial and long-standing disagreement in economic theory, between the orthodox view that economic growth naturally delivers 'convergence' of rich and poor countries, and alternative theories which, for one reason or another, say the opposite. Neither the World Bank nor the IMF has devoted significant resources to studying it. Many analysts apparently take it for granted that global inequality is falling. Others think it sufficient to focus on poverty, and ignore inequality as such. Both these views need to be challenged.
New evidence suggests that global inequality is worsening rapidly.
There are good reasons to worry about that trend, quite apart from what it implies about the extent of world poverty. This article is concerned with distribution among the planet's 6.2 billion people, regardless of country or region. Most of the inequality in world incomes reflects inequality in country averages rather than inequality within countries. The distribution has two poles. It contains the populations of most of Africa, India, Indonesia and rural China.