Diane Elson

This volume brings together seminal papers and contributions from Diane Elson’s extensive back catalogue, including key contributions from the pre-digital era that are now difficult to find. The collection reflects the author’s enduring fascination with the interaction of gender, development and economics and the relevance of her thinking for tackling inequality and economic problems today.

The dominant approach to economic policy has so far failed to adequately address the pressing challenges the world faces today: extreme poverty, widespread joblessness and precarious employment, burgeoning inequality, and large-scale environmental threats. This message was brought home forcibly by the 2008 global economic crisis. Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice shows how human rights have the potential to transform economic thinking and policy-making with far-reaching consequences for social justice. The authors make the case for a new normative and analytical framework, based on a broader range of objectives which have the potential to increase the substantive freedoms and choices people enjoy in the course of their lives and not on not upon narrow goals such as the growth of gross domestic product. The book covers a range of issues including inequality, fiscal and monetary policy, international development assistance, financial markets, globalization, and economic instability. This new approach allows for a complex interaction between individual rights, collective rights and collective action, as well as encompassing a legal framework which offers formal mechanisms through which unjust policy can be protested. This highly original and accessible book will be essential reading for human rights advocates, economists, policy-makers and those working on questions of social justice.

The dominant approach to economic policy has so far failed to adequately address the pressing challenges the world faces today: extreme poverty, widespread joblessness and precarious employment, burgeoning inequality, and large-scale environmental threats. This message was brought home forcibly by the 2008 global economic crisis. Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice shows how human rights have the potential to transform economic thinking and policy-making with far-reaching consequences for social justice. The authors make the case for a new normative and analytical framework, based on a broader range of objectives which have the potential to increase the substantive freedoms and choices people enjoy in the course of their lives and not on not upon narrow goals such as the growth of gross domestic product. The book covers a range of issues including inequality, fiscal and monetary policy, international development assistance, financial markets, globalization, and economic instability. This new approach allows for a complex interaction between individual rights, collective rights and collective action, as well as encompassing a legal framework which offers formal mechanisms through which unjust policy can be protested. This highly original and accessible book will be essential reading for human rights advocates, economists, policy-makers and those working on questions of social justice.

A gender responsive budget (GRB) is one which takes into consideration the effect of government revenue and expenditure policies on both women and men. This publication provides a comprehensive understanding of GRB initiatives and will be invaluable to governments, NGOs, donors and other agencies working to integrate a gender analysis into public expenditure policies and budgets. Divided into four sections, the book provides a conceptual and theoretical framework, traces the evolution of work in this area, assesses the role of different stakeholders and highlights lessons learned to date. A profile of known activities at country level shows how gender responsive budgets have been used as a pivotal tool with which to assess budgetary performance and impact.