Books like The Globalization of Inequality by François Bourguignon

Amartya Sen’s 1999 book analyzes international development as a process of expanding human freedom.

"More than four billion people--some 60 percent of humanity--live in debilitating poverty, on less than $5 per day. The standard narrative tells us this crisis is a natural phenomenon, having to do with climate, geography, and culture. It tells us all we have to do is give aid to help poor countries up the development ladder. If poor countries would only adopt the right institutions and economic policies, they could join the ranks of the rich world. Anthropologist Jason Hickel argues that this story ignores the broader political forces at play. Global poverty--and the growing inequality between the rich countries of Europe and North America and the poor ones of Africa, Asia, and South America--has come about because the global economy has been designed over the course of five centuries to favor the interests of the most powerful nations. Global inequality is not natural, inevitable, or accidental. To close the divide, Hickel proposes dramatic action rooted in real justice: abolishing debt burdens in the global South, democratizing the institutions of global governance, and rolling out an international minimum wage, among other steps. Only then will we have a chance at a world built on equal footing."--Jacket flap.

Nobel laureate Angus Deaton explains how historic advances in health and economics have made the world richer and healthier while widening global inequality.

The recent surge of inequality in the West has been driven by the revolution in technology, just as the Industrial Revolution drove inequality 150 years ago. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, Milanović explains the benign and malign forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations. He reveals who has been helped the most by globalization, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice.