Frances Julia Stewart (born 4 August 1940)^[1] is professor emeritus of development economics and director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), University of Oxford. A pre-eminent development economist, she was named one of fifty outstanding technological leaders for 2003 by Scientific American. She was president of the Human Development and Capability Association from 2008 to 2010.

Frances Stewart was born in Kendal on 4 August 1940, the daughter of Clarissa Goldschmidt, a history graduate from Somerville College, Oxford, and the economist Nicholas Kaldor. Her sister is the London School of Economics political scientist Mary Kaldor. The family moved to Cambridge in 1950.^[1]

She studied at Cambridgeshire High School for Girls and then gained a first-class degree from Oxford University in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE).^[1]

Stewart uses the concept to "virtuous circles" to express how development policies can target drivers of conflict like poverty, inequality, and inadequate social services.^[2] Virtuous circles begin with conflict prevention, which leads to enhanced development, a more secure state, and thus further enhanced development.^[2] Stewart notes that virtuous circles are fragile and that if economic growth excludes sufficiently large population segments, resulting horizontal inequality may break the virtuous circle and trigger conflict.^[2]

• Toye, John (2011), "Social wellbeing and conflict: themes from the work of Frances Stewart", in FitzGerald, Valpy; Heyer, Judith; Thorp, Rosemary (eds.), Overcoming the persistence of inequality and poverty, Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave, ISBN 9780230249707 (link to pdf)