Global justice report offers bold ideas but misses the realities of 2 billion informal workers - economists

Rising inequality is, at its core, a political and policy choice.

This is the central message of the Global Justice Report authored by experts based at the World Inequality Lab , led by economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel .

As economists and experts on labour, inequality and the informal economy, we believe there is a great deal to support in the report, which was released in June 2026.

It is a bold effort to connect redistribution, climate action and global democracy.

Among the proposals it makes is the creation of a Global Justice Fund financed through additional taxes on the wealth and incomes of roughly the richest 1% of the world’s population.

Much of the initial revenue would be invested in a World Sovereign Fund.

The returns would finance continuing transfers to countries on an equal per-capita basis.

These country dividends would support investment in health, education, climate action and infrastructure.

The report makes a number of other proposals too.

These include moving towards “sufficiency” , through a sharp reduction in labour hours and material footprint and large changes in consumption patterns, food habits, land use, and forest cover.

These proposals deserve to be taken seriously.

But the report’s understanding of how labour markets operate in the global south demands scrutiny.

A programme conceived in the name of global justice must not turn the particular history and institutions of the developed world into the future prescribed for everyone else.

Rather, it should start from a defining economic reality of the global south.