There have been numerous news reports in recent weeks pointing to how Covid will damage Latin America more severely than many other world regions. Several commentators and scholars have argued that the pandemic will wipe out several decades of social progress, pushing millions back into poverty. To discuss economic growth and poverty and inequality reduction in Latin America both before and after Covid, in addition to key political trends in the region, I am joined by my colleague Benedicte Bull. Benedicte Bull is a professor of political science and head of the Norwegian Latin America Research Network (NorLARNet) at the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo. Her research has focused on the relationship between politics, state building and development, and how international relations influence the possibilities for establishing good institutions that can produce positive societal change.Resources:"Latin America ‘to lose 20 years of progress’ in poverty reduction" (Financial Times, 29 June 2020)Inequality in Latin America?The crisis in Venezuela: Drivers, transitions, and pathwaysPeace-building and business elites in Guatemala and El Salvador: explaining the discursive ‘institutional turn’Chinese engagement in Africa and Latin America: does it matter for state capacity?Covid in developing economies (E-book, edited by Simeon Djankov and Ugo Panizza)Benedicte Bull on TwitterFollow the In Pursuit of Development podcast on Twitter