While the world has seen a decline in absolute poverty, it has also seen a simultaneous rise in economic inequality. This is the case in all of the major economies as well as in emerging ones, including South Africa.

Is there a South African explanation of poverty and inequality that is distinctive and different from an explanation of poverty and inequality that would be used in other contexts and countries? What are the familiar constants that characterise the interdependence of this ubiquitous pairing? How can the discussion on poverty and inequality be taken forward? Is wealth taxation a viable instrument to reduce wealth inequality in South Africa?

In Poverty and Inequality: Diagnosis, Prognosis and Responses, the authors explore these and many others gritty questions as they analyse the complexity of poverty and inequality beyond an over-determination of the concepts by the economic or the wealth index in South Africa.