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Andy Sumner
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<h2 id="work">Work</h2> <p>Sumner's contemporary research focuses on: </p> <ol><li><a href="/facts/Poverty/hNLtrNmK">global poverty</a> and <a href="/facts/Economic_inequality/2Kb0kBH5">inequality</a>;</li> <li><a href="/facts/Inclusive_growth/P9aYVGCf">inclusive growth</a> and <a href="/facts/Structural_change/5xgNfUQB">structural change</a> in <a href="/facts/Southeast_Asia/VafwT517">Southeast Asia</a> (<a href="/facts/Indonesia/vQnWU3IW">Indonesia</a>, <a href="/facts/Malaysia/8zbUMzCP">Malaysia</a> and <a href="/facts/Thailand/GCUnN4JK">Thailand</a>);</li> <li>the relationship between <a href="/facts/Poverty/hNLtrNmK">poverty</a>, <a href="/facts/Economic_inequality/2Kb0kBH5">inequality</a> and <a href="/facts/Economic_development/4KRrMBaM">economic development</a>.</li></ol> <p>A central theme of his work is the persistence of poverty in middle-income countries and the implications of national inequality for poverty and <a href="/facts/Theories_of_poverty/eP4jjDkd">theories of poverty</a>. His research seeks to reconnect the analysis of poverty and inequality with the study of economic development and structural transformation. </p><p>Sumner’s research has had an impact on the understandings of, and approaches to global poverty and inequality in terms of their understandings of where much of the world's poverty is located, theories of the cause of poverty, and the growing importance of national inequality in understanding absolute poverty. </p><p>His is particularly known for his research that focused on the fact that about a billion people or three-quarters of the poor live in middle-income countries which he termed the “<a href="/facts/The_New_Bottom_Billion/oD1szSyy">new bottom billion</a>”. This finding raised questions about the distributional patterns of <a href="/facts/Economic_growth/kEXm3jWm">economic growth</a>, the divorce of much <a href="/facts/Foreign_aid/L5WH5WPM">foreign aid</a> from world poverty and about the dominant <a href="/facts/Developing_country/eTfS4kxl">country analytical categories</a>. It has contributed to a changed understanding of global poverty.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> His work argues that absolute poverty is a <a href="/facts/Income_distribution/5ewT5Q6S">distributional</a> outcome of specific patterns of economic development and welfare regimes. </p><p>Together with Alex Cobham he proposed a new <a href="/facts/Income_inequality_metrics/fw3SxsAX">measure of inequality</a> linked more closely to poverty, the <a href="/facts/Income_inequality_metrics/fw3SxsAX">Palma ratio</a> based on the work of <a href="/facts/Gabriel_Palma/xG2YQGc3">Gabriel Palma</a>. This new measure of inequality is now reported annually as a standard measure in the <a href="/facts/Statistical_database/67Y1mYIF">statistical databases</a> of the <a href="/facts/OECD/CI9W2zGv">OECD</a>, the <a href="/facts/United_Nations_Development_Programme/y3gpXUHD">UNDP</a> and the UK <a href="/facts/Office_for_National_Statistics/6cAQI9zH">Office of National Statistics</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> </p><p>His work has been discussed in media outlets such as <i><a href="/facts/The_Economist/KNjzFCVU">The Economist</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/The_Guardian/H84wwJYM">The Guardian</a></i>, the <a href="/facts/Voice_of_America/PrTjgDn7">Voice of America</a>, <a href="/facts/BBC_News/oGAe2H8E">BBC News</a> and <i><a href="/facts/The_Washington_Post/dRvzvqJc">The Washington Post</a></i>. </p> <h2 id="publications">Publications</h2> <h3>Selected books</h3> <ul><li>Sumner, A. (2018) <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/development-and-distribution-9780198792369?cc=at&lang=en&">Development and Distribution: Structural Change in Southeast Asia</a>. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780198792369.</li> <li>Sumner, A. (2016) <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/global-poverty-9780198703525?cc=at&lang=en&">Global poverty: Deprivation, distribution and development</a>. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780198703525.</li></ul> <h3>Selected articles</h3> <ul><li>Edward, P. and Sumner, A. (2018) <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2017.1401461?journalCode=ctwq20">‘Global Poverty and Inequality: Are the Revised Estimates Open to an Alternative Interpretation?’</a> Third World Quarterly. 39.3: 487-509</li> <li>Hoy, C. and Sumner A. (2016) <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jgd.2016.7.issue-1/jgd-2016-0021/jgd-2016-0021.xml">‘Global Poverty and Inequality: Is There New Capacity for Redistribution in Developing Countries?’</a> Journal of Globalization and Development 7.1: 117–57.</li> <li>Sumner, A. (2016) <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ejdr.2016.2">Why are some people poor?</a> <i>European Journal of Development Research</i> 28: 130-142</li> <li>Cobham, A., Schlogl, L., and Sumner, A. (2016) <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1758-5899.12320">Inequality and the Tails: the Palma Proposition and Ratio</a>. <i>Global Policy</i> 7(1): 201-211.</li> <li>Edward, P. and Sumner, A. (2014) <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X13002933">‘Estimating the scale and geography of global poverty now and in the future: How much difference do method and assumptions make?’</a>, World Development 58: 67-82.</li> <li>Vázquez, S. and Sumner, A. (2013) <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220388.2013.822071">‘Revisiting the Meaning of Development: A Multidimensional Taxonomy of Developing Countries’</a>. <i>Journal of Development Studies</i> 49.12: 1728–45.</li> <li>Sumner, A. (2013) <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2013.784593">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2013.784593</a> Third World Quarterly, 34.3: 357-377</li> <li>Sumner, A. (2012) <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X11002294">‘Where do the Poor Live?’</a>, World Development. 40.5: 865–877</li> <li>Kanbur, R. and Sumner, A. (2012) <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jid.2861">‘Poor Countries or Poor People? Development Assistance and the New Geography of Global Poverty’</a>, Journal of International Development, 24.6: 686-695</li></ul> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Economic_development/4KRrMBaM">Economic development</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Economic_growth/kEXm3jWm">Economic growth</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Structural_change/5xgNfUQB">Structural change</a></li> <li>Structural transformation</li> <li><a href="/facts/The_New_Bottom_Billion/oD1szSyy">The New Bottom Billion</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Development_studies/Jb35zyLp">Development studies</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Emerging_Markets/DAdHmQnE">Emerging Markets</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Income_inequality_metrics/fw3SxsAX">Palma Ratio</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/andy-sumner(6f275196-0385-4cad-9ff8-1578c8ed6905)/publications.html">Andy Sumner's publications</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/did/people/academic-staff/sumner/index.aspx">Andy Sumner’s website</a> at <a href="/facts/King%2527s_College_London/6qy3Y2hY">King's College London</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.cgdev.org/expert/andy-sumner">Andy Sumner’s website</a> at the <a href="/facts/Center_for_Global_Development/SYtXHCmS">Center for Global Development</a>, Washington, D.C.</li> <li><a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=byOFHKMAAAAJ&hl=en">Andy Sumner</a> on <a href="/facts/Google_Scholar/FhEwS2QM">Google Scholar</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/author/andy-sumner">Andy Sumner’s website</a> at <a href="/facts/Global_Policy/9dmKdb2A">Global Policy</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/andy-sumner">Andy Sumner’s profile</a> at <a href="/facts/The_Guardian/H84wwJYM">The Guardian</a></li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/andypsumner">Andy Sumner</a> on <a href="/facts/Twitter/VWwDNGUm">Twitter</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjd7AdnXLs">Interview on ‘The New Bottom Billion’</a> for <a href="/facts/Global_Policy/9dmKdb2A">Global Policy</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.gpidnetwork.org/">ESRC Global Challenges Research Network on Global Poverty and Inequality Dynamics</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/did/People/Academic-staff/Sumner/Current-Research-Projects.aspx">The Growth, Inequality and Poverty (GrIP) Project</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/did/People/Academic-staff/Sumner/Inclusive-growth-and-structural-change-in-Southeast-Asia.aspx">Inclusive Growth and Structural Change in Southeast Asia</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"Andy Sumner - Biography". King's College London. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660" target="_blank">https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"The FP Top 100 Global Thinkers 2011". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/11/28/the-fp-top-100-global-thinkers-4" target="_blank">https://foreignpolicy.com/2011/11/28/the-fp-top-100-global-thinkers-4</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"London's 40 under 40 International Development Leaders". Devex. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://london40.devex.com/meet-the-40-under-40" target="_blank">http://london40.devex.com/meet-the-40-under-40</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Andy Sumner - Biography". King's College London. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660" target="_blank">https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Research Associates and Advisors - Andy Sumner". OPHI. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://www.ophi.org.uk/about/people/research-associates-and-advisors/andy-sumner/" target="_blank">http://www.ophi.org.uk/about/people/research-associates-and-advisors/andy-sumner/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"Experts - Andy Sumner". CGD. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://www.cgdev.org/expert/andy-sumner" target="_blank">http://www.cgdev.org/expert/andy-sumner</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"Andy Sumner - Biography". King's College London. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660" target="_blank">https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/person.aspx?id=bee013ca-f1f4-4c0f-881d-05731ca6b660</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"Andy Sumner - Deputy Executive Editor". Global Policy. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/staff/andy-sumner" target="_blank">http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/staff/andy-sumner</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Sumner, Andy; Mallett, Richard (2012-12-31). "International aid, but not as we know it". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/dec/31/international-aid-book-extract-sumner-mallett" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/dec/31/international-aid-book-extract-sumner-mallett</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>"Map: How the world's countries compare on income inequality (the U.S. ranks below Nigeria)". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/27/map-how-the-worlds-countries-compare-on-income-inequality-the-u-s-ranks-below-nigeria/" target="_blank">https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/09/27/map-how-the-worlds-countries-compare-on-income-inequality-the-u-s-ranks-below-nigeria/</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>"Who, What, Why: What is the Gini coefficient?". BBC News. 2015-03-12. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31847943" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-31847943</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"On inequality, let's do the Palma (because the Gini is so last century)". Oxfam. 2013-03-19. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/on-inequality-lets-do-the-palma-because-the-gini-is-so-last-century/" target="_blank">http://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/on-inequality-lets-do-the-palma-because-the-gini-is-so-last-century/</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>"Palma vs Gini: measuring post-2015 inequality". The Broker. Retrieved 4 May 2015. <a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Inequality-debate/Palma-vs-Gini-measuring-post-2015-inequality" target="_blank">http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Blogs/Inequality-debate/Palma-vs-Gini-measuring-post-2015-inequality</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>