"The essays in this book propose new ways of reducing inequality, not by growth-inhibiting transfers and regulations, but by enhancing efficiency--eliminating consumption subsidies for the wealthy, increasing the productivity of the poor, and shifting to a more labor-and-skill-demanding growth path...They draw on discussions at a conference sponsored by the IDB and the MacArthur Foundation, titled "Inequality-Reducing Growth in Latin America," held in Washington, D.C. in January 1997"-Foreword.

Foreword / Michael Armacost and Enrique V. Iglesias - - Virtuous circles in Latin America's second stage of reforms / Nancy Birdsall, Carol Graham, and Richard H. Sabot - - Kinds and causes of inequality in Latin America / John Sheahan and Enrique V. Iglesias - - Structural reforms and equity / Eduardo Lora and Juan Luis Londoño - - Growth with equity : the volatility connection / Michael Gavin and Ricardo Hausmann - - No tradeoff : efficient growth via more equal human capital accumulation / Nancy Birdsall and Juan Luis Londoño - - Inequality-reducing growth in agriculture : a market-friendly policy agenda / Michael R. Carter and Jonathan Coles - - Economic policy and labor market dynamics / René Cortázar, Nora Lustig, and Richard H. Sabot - - Equity benefits from financial market reforms / Liliana Rojas-Suárez, and Steven R. Weisbrod - - Pension reform : an efficiency-equity tradeoff? / Estelle James - - Reforming public monopolies : water supply / Raquel Alfaro, Ralph Bradburd, and John Briscoe - - Inequality and growth : implications for public finance and lessons from experience in the United States / Joseph Stiglitz - - The political economy of institutional reform in Latin America / Carol Graham and Moisés Naim.