Introduction: Developing Countries and Odious Inequality

Abstract

This is a book about the determinants and consequences of interpersonal economic inequality in low- and middle-income developing countries.¹ Interpersonal economic inequality refers to the disproportional distribution of wealth and income between individuals/households in a national unit.² ‘Wealth’, as John Stuart Mill suggested, names ‘all useful or agreeable things which possess exchangeable value’, including assets such as fixed and human capital.³ ‘Income’, in turn, can be seen as the flow of returns on the gainful use of the assets that constitute wealth. I treat the distribution of wealth and income as the core determinants of economic inequality, and use the terms ‘income/wealth inequality’, ‘economic inequality’, and ‘inequality’ interchangeably.⁴