Nanak Kakwani’s Legacy on the Study of Income Inequality, Poverty, and Tax Progressivity

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JID Editor-in-Chief Professor Omar F. Hamouda and Journal Director Betsey Price are Launching a Special Issue of the Journal of Income Distribution (JID) in honor of Nanak Kakwani. The gathering introduces the next issue of the Journal, guest-edited by Jacques Silber and Hyun Son, on ‘Nanak Kakwani’s Legacy on the Study of Income Inequality, Poverty, and Tax Progressivity’. On this occasion, on 28 September 2022, through online Zoom, an impressive number of international specialists will pay tribute to a remarkable scholar in his virtual presence.   

Please note this is a virtual gathering on September 28, covering many different international time zones: from 7AM in the EST, to 1 PM in the CET, and 9 PM in AEST. Join us at the right time for your zone!

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Launch of the Special Issue of the Journal of Income Distribution in honor of
Nanak Kakwani’s Legacy on the Study of Income Inequality, Poverty, and Tax Progressivity
28th September 2022
1--2.30pm CET / 7--8.30 am in Washington D.C. / 9--10.30 pm in Sydney
Online via Zoom - Register at:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvdeyvqjkiGdXKByGknDoMz30M_K_e2G1E

PROGRAMME

WELCOME
Betsey Price Journal Manager, Journal of Income Distribution
Omar F. Hamouda Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Income Distribution

INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE
Jacques Silber
Hyun Son                 Guest Editors of the Special Issue

INVITED TALKS
Stephen Jenkins Professor of Economic and Social Policy, London School of Economics
Nora Lustig Samuel Z. Stone Professor of Latin American Economics and the Director of the CEQ Institute, Tulane University
Gary Fields John P. Windmuller Professor of International and Comparative Labor and Professor of Economics, Cornell University
Kunal Sen Director of the United Nation University - World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) and Professor of Development Economics, University of Manchester

COMMENTARY
Francisco Ferreira Amartya Sen Professor of Inequality Studies and Director of the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics

CLOSING REMARKS
Nanak Kakwani

Organizing committee: Journal of Income Distribution’s Editorial Team comprised of Omar Hamouda, Roberto Iacono, Guido Neidhöfer, Betsey Price, and Michele Raitano; and guest editors, Jacques Silber and Hyun Son.
Event hosted by ZEW Mannheim.
Event homepage: https://www.zew.de/VA3896

Professor Nanak Kakwani’s imposing and inspiring theoretical and empirical economic contributions are impressive, both in depth and breath.  The central focus of his research is the development of measurement tools needed to evaluate poverty, inequality, and disparity and to provide the empirical evidence and policy guidance required to help lift the underprivileged from their deprivation and destitution. He has developed many statistical methods and sets of indices, along the lines of the Lorenz curve, the Gini coefficient, and social-welfare functions, that bear his name, as published in the top economics journals: Econometrica, Econometric Theory, Applied Econometrics, Applied Welfare Economics, Quantitative Economics, International Economic Review, and many others, including the Journal of income Distribution, Journal of Economic Inequality, and the Review of Income and Wealth.    

Aware that poverty has multidimensional characteristics and consequences, Kakwani has skillfully set out to disentangle its facets through theoretical and empirical methodologies. He investigates and studies the various aspects of deprivation and tackles each one from the angles of its specific impact on growth, taxation, standard of living, social protections, prices, labour opportunities or health prospects. In each of his studies, Kakwani’s intuitive approach is original and has pionneered empirical research in economic development. 

Kakwani’s theoretical research in the concept of measurement was designed mostly for empirical performance application in specific case studies, in either one or a group of countries:  poverty levels in Côte d’Ivoire, redistribution in Australia, poverty alleviation in India, aging in Africa, growth and the labour market in Brazil, cash transfers in African countries, inequality in Thailand, social pensions for the elderly in Sub-Saharan Africa, welfare in Ukraine, poverty program in China, and many other international comparison studies in welfare and growth performance. Dozens of examples of his studies are published in applied journals and various international organisations, such as the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank.   

Kakwani has advised many governments and worked for many international organizations, such as UNDP Director and Chief Economist of what was then called the International Poverty Centre UNDP, consultant to the Welfare and Human Resources Division of the World Bank, and economist of the Brazilian Development Bank.   

The Journal of Income Distribution is hosting the event in connection with the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim. The Editorial Office of the Journal of Income Distribution is housed at Glendon College, York University.  Its website (www.jid-online.org) and its electronic publication are hosted by the Digital Scholarship Centre of York University Libraries. Online and print publication of the Special Issue in honor of Professor Kakwani is available by individual or institutional subscription: https://jid.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jid/about/subscriptions 

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