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'Macroeconomic management is of great importance for the poor, who tends to pay more in times of crisis and gain less in times of booms. This volume rightly avoids providing a recipe for all countries, stressing instead the importance of country context in choosing macro policies.' - Francois Bourguignon, Senior Vice President for Development Economics and Chief Economist, World Bank 'At long last, a solid professional analysis of the interrelationships between macroeconomic policies and poverty, not only in theory but also in practice. UNRISD and Cornia merit the policy community's thanks and congratulations. One must pray that finance ministries and the IMF will now learn from it.' - Gerry Helleiner, Professor Emeritus in Economics, University of Toronto, Canada, and Chairman, International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP) 'Doing macroeconomics to help the poor is just about 180 degrees out of sync with current policy practice. This book will help turn the policy world in the right direction by describing how pro-poor macro policies should be designed. It merits careful study everywhere.' - Lance Taylor, Arnhold Professor of International Cooperation and Development, New School for Social Research, USA 'This wide-ranging volume explores both the potential as well as the limitations of current thinking around 'pro-poor macroeconomics'. It also underscores the crucial importance of grounding development, employment and poverty reduction policies in sustainable macroeconomic policy.' - Jose Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations 'The articles are firmly based in empirical evidence, which is refreshing...' - CAPSA Flash.

Abstract
The paper examines whether the planned eradication of poverty to the year 2030 part of the Sustainable Development Goals strategy is compatible with the trends expected over the next 15 years in key economic variables such as GDP growth, population growth, income inequality and food prices. To do so, the paper develops a comparative-static, poverty-accounting model that allows to simulate to 2030 the impact on SDG1 (poverty eradication) of favorable future improvements equal to best results recorded for such variables during the last 30 years. Numerous model simulations show that – even under the most favorable assumptions – between 14 and 16 countries (mainly from Africa) out of the 78 analyzed will not reach the SDG1 target. Policy suggestions on how to improve on such results are presented at the end of the paper.

Large and sudden economic and political changes, even if potentially positive, often entail enormous social and health costs. Such transitory costs are generally underestimated or neglected by incumbent governments. The mortality crisis experienced by the former communist countries of Europe—which caused ten million excess deaths from 1990 to 2000—is a good example of how the transition from a low to a high socio-economic level can generate huge social costs if it is not actively, effectively, and equitably managed from a public policy perspective.

The paper reviews the extent of the income inequality decline that took place in Latin America in 2002-10 and then focuses on the factors that may explain such decline. These include a lowered skill premium following an expansion of secondary education among the poor, and the adoption of more equalizing tax, labour market subsidies and macro policies by a growing number of progressive governments. Finally, the paper reviews the changes in inequality during 2009-12 and discusses whether and how the recent decline can be sustained over the next decade in the context of sluggish world growth.