Augusto Lopez-Claros is an international economist with over thirty years of experience in international organizations, including most recently at the World Bank. Drawing on his long experience as an economist, he partnered with author Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, to publish a probing new book, Equality for Women = Prosperity for All (St. Martin’s Press, 2018). The work covers in depth an array of impressively researched topics, including law, violence against women, culture, employment and political representation—far beyond the usual discussion of equal pay for equal work—to make an important, often overlooked point. Gender discrimination is often viewed from the perspective of human rights, as embedded in the Universal Declaration, and the more recent Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Their work takes a new approach, recognizing that, not only does gender discrimination lack a basis in any credible system of moral and ethical principles, but it undermines human prosperity itself. Their research shows that the pervasive discrimination against women in virtually every sphere of human life constitutes a wholly unworkable foundation for allocating resources and for creating wealth and opportunity. Each chapter lays out the reasons for the heavy price humanity has paid over the past several hundred years for the overwhelming domination by men in government and the political process. The book asks the fundamental question: is gender equality a prerequisite not only for a prosperous world, but for a world at peace with itself and with the environment? It presents the policies and values that mean that being born female or male will no longer be a measure of whether a human being will be allowed to develop his or her potential.

Equality for Women = Prosperity for All has been widely reviewed and praised by readers. Alyson Colón of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto wrote, “This is an ideal book for policymakers who need to understand the broader picture of gender inequality and its impact.” Another reader, Nancy Birdsall, former executive vice president of the Inter-American Development Bank, wrote that the book made for “a compelling and often disturbing read by two authors well read in other social sciences,… and with a fluid command of the pen. The chapter on violence against women is gripping and disturbing, its commonality amply documented” adding this personal note: “Do not overlook the chapter on culture, with its argument that incentives are what matter, and its thorough rejection of doctrinal beliefs as legitimate “cultural” traditions – a message for the Taliban and the Pope as well.” Veronika Bard, Swedish Ambassador to Switzerland wrote that the book “shines a spotlight on the discrimination and injustice that keep women and girls in the shadows of society, shows the links between gender stereotyping and oppression, between domestic violence and political instability and highlights how the costs of gender inequality are borne not only by the individual but by society as a whole.”