Jayati Ghosh Named to G20 Expert Panel on Global Inequality

Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics, has been appointed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to a new high-level committee tasked with delivering the first-ever report on global inequality to leaders of industrialized and emerging-market nations.

The Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts, chaired by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, will present the report on global wealth and income inequality to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg in November.

Ghosh, a development economist known internationally for her work on globalization, macroeconomic policy and issues of gender and development, says the committee's work is urgent as new economic shocks worsen divisions between rich and poor.

"We now see a 'perfect storm' of shocks… all in the context of worsening climate change," Ghosh notes. "These further increase the wealth of the richest and aggravate poverty and insecurity among the majority."

Ramaphosa says the initiative will address the "serious systemic risk" inequality poses to economic, social and political stability worldwide.

Other members of the panel include Adriana E. Abdenur of Brazil, Winnie Byanyima of Uganda, Imraan Valodia of South Africa and Wanga Zembe-Mkabile of South Africa.