Introduction

Good evening, everyone—I am delighted to be here. Let me congratulate Oxfam America on the opening of their new offices!

Oxfam has come a long way since it was founded at 17 Broad Street in Oxford 73 years ago. Today, you work in over 90 countries, with 17 national chapters—including Oxfam America. Oxfam is a longstanding advocate for social justice on many fronts.

Personally, I have been especially struck by your recent work on inequality, including your finding that last year “the world’s richest 80 people had the same wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population.” Your work in this area is deservedly attracting attention.

We at the IMF have also intensified our focus on the macro-critical dimensions of inequality. This evening, I would like to take this opportunity to launch a new IMF Staff Discussion

Note—“Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality”, our third paper on gender equity in the past 2 years. Copies are available in the room, and on our

website.

I will highlight some of the key findings from our recent inequality work, focusing on our new paper, which addresses the two questions of why gender inequality matters, and what

different policymakers can do about it, depending on the circumstances. But first of all, why does income inequality matter?

Put simply, reducing excessive income inequality is not just sound social policy, but sound economic policy as well.