We are pleased to announce that the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Institute entered into a Fiscal Analysis Partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) on September 30, 2020. The MCC, an independent U.S. Government foreign aid agency, is guided by its founding principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom … Continue reading
Tulane University has been awarded a two-year grant by the National Science Foundation in the amount of $241,814 to support the CEQ Institute Data Center on Fiscal Policy, Poverty, and Inequality. With Nora Lustig as the Principal Investigator and Sean Higgins as a co-PI, the project will develop a state of the art visualization tool as well as … Continue reading
In a recent Washington Post article, President Obama was quoted saying “When we see people, global elites, wealthy corporations seemingly living by a different set of rules, avoiding taxes, manipulating loopholes … this feeds a profound sense of injustice.”[2] So, why did so many of the victims of such injustice vote for one of the … Continue reading
The CEQ Institute at Tulane University has been awarded a $4.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study ways to reduce inequality and poverty through taxes and social spending in developing countries. Directed by Nora Lustig, the Institute was established in May 2015 to analyze the impact of taxation and social … Continue reading
Commitment to Equity Working Paper No. 20 “Fiscal Policy, Inequality and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala” by Maynor Cabrera, Nora Lustig, and Hilcías Morán has been published in the prestigious academic journal World Development! Link here
A new blog post on the International Growth Center‘s website outlines why the Sustainable Development Goals needs to take what the net effect of all governments taxing and spending has on the poor. In many cases, the poor are left worse off by tax and transfer programs. “As it stands, the SDGs list of targets would … Continue reading
Nora Lustig will serve on the World Bank’s Commission on Global Poverty announced today. The Commission’s mandate is to report on the best ways to measure and monitor poverty and deprivation around the world. The new Commission, made up of 24 leading international economists, will be chaired by Sir Anthony Atkinson, a leading authority on … Continue reading
The Co-Facilitators of the Third International Financing for Development Conference that will be held in Addis Ababa this coming July, are proposing “tax targeting” as a mechanism to promote equity in developing countries. Mick Moore, Nora Lustig, Richard Bird, Nancy Birdsall, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Richard Manning and Wilson Prichard demonstrate that this tactic would in fact … Continue reading
Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala – Working Paper 397 by Maynor Cabrera, Nora Lustig and Hilcías Moran Abstract Guatemala is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America and has the highest incidence of poverty. The indigenous population is more than twice as likely to be poor than the nonindigenous … Continue reading
Commitment to Equity is pleased to announce the availability of two new working papers published this past January. Click the title below to view: No. 22: Fiscal Policy and Ethno-Racial Inequality in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala and Uruguay. By Nora Lustig No. 27: Public Transfer and Poverty Reduction: An Evaluation of Program Contribution to the Exit … Continue reading
The World Bank has released the Ethiopia Poverty Assessment, a country with one of the highest poverty rates in the world in 2000. Today, the country has seen a 33% reduction in poverty (down from 44% in 2000) thanks to agricultural growth and pro-poor spending. Additionally, Ethiopia is one of the most equal countries in Africa, … Continue reading
Commitment to Equity, in conjunction with Tulane University and the Inter-American Dialogue are pleased to announce the availability of the CEQ Policy Assessment on Guatemala (by Maynor Cabrera, Nora Lustig, and Hilcías E. Morán). Abstract: In 2010, according to the CEQ analysis for Guatemala, fiscal policy did almost nothing to change inequality and poverty. Recent developments on … Continue reading
Tulane’s School of Liberal Arts featured a piece on Prof. Lustig and the Gates Foundation funding of the Commitment to Equity initiative: “Through the Gates grant, I can support my graduate students and expand the reach of the CEQ project to new limits. I can travel and learn about new places such as Ghana and … Continue reading
All presentations from the workshop on the relationship between fiscal sustainability, redistribution, and social spending are now available online at the National Treasury’s website. The workshop opened by the Minister of Finance and held in Pretoria, South Africa on November 5th, sought to inform discussion about South Africa’s fiscal choices as it implements the National … Continue reading
The World Economic Forum is an institution that provides a unique environment for politicians, business leaders, academics and others to exchange ideas to improve the state of the world. This week, Olli Rehn, VP of the European Parliament, posted an article addressing three key questions for public finance: – What kind of policy mix of … Continue reading
Commitment to Equity’s 20th Working Paper “Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala” is now available to download on commitmentoequity.org. Written by Maynor Cabrera (Fedes), Nora Lustig (Tulane University), and Hilcías E. Morán (Bank of Guatemala), the paper uses fiscal incidence analysis to show that takes and transfers do almost nothing to reduce … Continue reading
This past Tuesday, September 2nd, Prof. Nora Lustig gave a presentation on the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries. This presentation was part of an ongoing Seminar series at UNAM that focuses on “la cuestión Social”, the theme this week was “Política fiscal, equidad y transparencia”. Prof. Lustig presented recent … Continue reading
We are pleased to announce a new Commitment to Equity (CEQ)partnership with the Center for Global Development (CGD). CGD works to reduce global poverty and inequality through rigorous research and active engagement with the policy community to make the world a more prosperous, just, and safe place for us all. CGD’s role as a partner of CEQ … Continue reading
Announcing a new CGD partnership with CGD non-resident fellow Nora Lustig’s brainchild called the Commitment to Equity (CEQ) project. Launched as a joint initiative of the Inter-American Dialogue and Tulane University in 2008, the CEQ consists of a network of economists who are undertaking detailed, data-rich analyses of the impact of taxation and social spending on inequality and poverty in more than 20 … Continue reading