Development in an Unequal World

Abstract This chapter shows how development economists and statisticians within the new field of United Nations development economics “discovered” global inequality. It focuses on the rise of the UN as a development organization, its key reports, and key figures Hans Singer, Raúl Prebisch, and Gunnar Myrdal. The UN was central in the field of global statistics, rendering visible how materially unequal the world was. In a unique postwar era marked by the rise of the UN, a reconfiguration of “development,” and an optimism about eradicating world poverty, leading development economists reacted against the idea that free markets and the international division of labor would automatically lead to a more equal material future. By analyzing deteriorating terms of trade and pinpointing the effects of colonialism on the world economic system, they instead turned to other ways to battle global material inequality: development cooperation, international redistribution, and alteration of the international terms of trade.