Blog

by Christina Golubski June 2016

Over the past two decades, Ghana’s economy experienced an average annual growth rate of 5.8 percent, and became a low-middle income country in 2007...

• Economic growth
• Employees
• Equality and inequality

Blog

by Kunal Sen May 2021

Informality is a pervasive phenomenon in the labour markets of developing countries. Two billion workers, representing 61.2 per cent of the world’s...

• Informal poor
• Labour market outcomes
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper investigates some major changes in the wealth distribution in China using the data from two national household surveys conducted in 1995 and 2002. The surveys collected rich information on household wealth and its components, enabling a...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Households

Working Paper

This paper depicts the trend of regional inequality in rural China for the period 1985-2002. The total inequality is decomposed into the so-called within- and between-components when China is divided into three regional belts (east, central and west)...

• Equality and inequality
• Regression analysis
• Rural development

Journal Article

This study provides the first country-wide research evidence that an affirmative action policy may induce a backlash. I exploit the timing of the implementation of castebased electoral quotas across and within the states of India. The results show...

• Caste
• Crime
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

All countries in transition experienced increases in inequality. They have also undertaken massive privatization of key asset housing, often on give-away terms. Are these two phenomena related? Has transfer of ownership rights to residents slowed...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Housing

Working Paper

This paper examines the nature and extent of global and regional income distribution and inequality using the most recent country level data on income distribution drawn from World Bank and UNU-WIDER studies for the period 1993-2000. The methodology...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• Income distribution

Blog

by Roger Williamson September 2013

24 September 2013 Roger Williamson Another big weekend for UNU-WIDER. The stage was well set on Thursday 19 September for a consideration of...

• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality
• Structural adjustment (Economic policy)

Blog

by Carl-Gustav Lindén January 2013

15 January 2013Martin Rama from The World bank discusses the process behind the World Development Report 2013 on jobs, which he directed.He emphasises...

• Conflict management
• Economic development
• Equality and inequality

Book Chapter

Part of Book Growth, Employment, and Poverty in Latin America

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Labour market

Book Chapter

Part of Book Growth, Employment, and Poverty in Latin America

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Labour market

Book Chapter

Part of Book Growth, Employment, and Poverty in Latin America

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Labour market

Book Chapter

Part of Book Growth, Employment, and Poverty in Latin America

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Labour market

Blog

Rolph van der Hoeven and Peter van Bergeijk One of the most important trends that emerged since the launch of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Blog

Tony Addison and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa China and India are making immense strides in development. Growth in both countries has been impressive. But...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Blog

by Duncan Green November 2012

Duncan Green Updating a book on contemporary events can be unnerving. In the intervening years, events and new thinking combine to expose the...

• Democracy
• Ecology
• Economic development

Book Chapter

Poverty reduction has become the central goal of development policies over the last decade but there is a growing realization that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programmes. Microfinance programmes can help poor people...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty
• Poverty measurement

Research Brief

The presence of European colonial powers in Africa has left a long-lasting legacy that has severely impacted their development trajectories. But what are the lingering effects of colonization on economic performance, in particular with regard to...

• Colonies
• Economic development
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper illustrates how the use of microeconometric techniques can be used to uncover the micro dynamics behind macro shocks. Using Mexican micro data we find out that—controlling for everything else—between 1994 and 1998 returns to personal...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Labour demand

Working Paper

This note points to certain similarities of orientation and outcome between Derek Parfit’s quest for a theory of beneficence and Amartya Sen’s quest for a suitable real-valued representation of poverty. It suggests that both projects, in a certain...

• Equality and inequality
• Index numbers (Economics)
• Poverty

Working Paper

In a heterogeneous population which can be partitioned into well-defined subgroups, it is plausible that the extent of measured aggregate poverty should depend upon the distribution of poverty across the subgroups. A judgment in favour of an equal...

• Equality and inequality
• Index numbers (Economics)
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper discusses the emergence of two new middles since the Cold War, namely middle-income countries and people living above absolute poverty but below a security-from poverty-line. The paper sets out what has happened. It is argued that although...

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

We analyze the relation between inequality, corruption and competition in a developing economy context where markets are imperfect. We consider an economy where different types of households (efficient and inefficient) choose to undertake production...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Economic equilibrium

Working Paper

This paper examines the causes of conflict in Burundi and discusses strategies for building peace. The analysis of the complex relationships between distribution and group dynamics reveals that these relationships are reciprocal, implying that...

• Distribution
• Education
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

Using a CGE model, PRCGEM, with an updated 2002 I/O table, this paper explores how earnings will be affected in each of 40 separate industries across 31 regions (or 8 regional blocks) of China for the period 2002–07. Labour movement between regions...

• Equality and inequality
• Labour market
• Regional economics

Working Paper

The impact of globalization on global and local inequality is hotly debated in the recent literature. This study considers the separate issue of the impact of globalization on poverty through quantifying explicitly the responsiveness of poverty to...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Working Paper

This paper presents a simple model to show how distributional concerns can engender social conflict. We have a two period model, where the cost of conflict is endogenous in the sense that parties involved have full control over how much conflict they...

• Equality and inequality
• Game theory
• Income distribution

Working Paper

The literature on the economics of happiness in the developed economies finds discrepancies between reported measures of wellbeing and income measures. The ‘Easterlin paradox’, for example, shows that average happiness levels do not increase as...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Working Paper

The paper studies the relation between globalization, inequality and marginalization, within and across nations. It reviews the existing evidence on globalization and global inequality and argues, using a simple theoretical model, that the two are...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• International economic relations

Working Paper

China’s recent accession to the WTO is expected to accelerate its integration into the world economy, which aggravates concerns over the impact of globalization on the already rising inter-regional income inequality in China. This paper discusses...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• Income

Working Paper

Land and wealth are closely related in rural Brazil, a country characterized by high levels of inequality in terms of income or landholdings. After presenting a historical retrospective of land concentration and land reform in Brazil, this study...

• Equality and inequality
• Land reform
• Land tenure

Working Paper

Using new household survey data for 1995 and 2002, we investigate the size of China’s urban-rural income gap, the gap’s contribution to overall inequality in China, and the factors underlying the gap. Our analysis improves on past estimates by using...

• Equality and inequality
• Households
• Income

Working Paper

There are two main types of data sources of income distributions in China: household survey data and grouped data. Household survey data are typically available for isolated years and individual provinces. In comparison, aggregate or grouped data are...

• Distribution
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

Chile, in the last 15 years, has shown remarkable results in terms of growth, poverty reduction and democratic governance. This paper reviews the structural changes that were behind these positive outcomes, as well as the pending challenges for Chile...

• Competition
• Democracy
• Economic development

Working Paper

This paper explores the forces that shaped China’s interprovincial inequality in the last five decades of communist rule. In so far as the change in interprovincial inequality is the result of differential growth in the provincial GDP per capita and...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Production (Economic theory)

Working Paper

While the average level of income per capita has increased in China rapidly, income inequality is becoming a more serious problem that may threaten social stability and the sustainability of economic development. This paper examines the existence in...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Income

Working Paper

Governments in the OECD note rising immigration with alarm and grapple with policies aimed at selecting certain migrants and keeping out others. Economists appear to be well armed to advise governments since they are responsible for an impressive...

• Emigration and immigration
• Equality and inequality
• Internal migration

Working Paper

This study discusses the evolution of personal wealth in transition economies. While data availability is still a problem, the available indirect evidence suggests privatization has resulted in an increase in personal wealth but also in personal...

• Elite (Social sciences)
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

Current urban interventions, particularly in cities in developing countries like Santiago de Chile, evidence major neglect in understanding the way contemporary living takes place and how it is changing under processes of globalization, global...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement
• Methodology (Poverty)

Blog

by Tony Addison April 2016

To Stockholm, for Sida’s Development Talks on the theme ‘Africa rising? Poverty and growth in sub-Saharan Africa’. Finn Tarp and Andy McKay spoke...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper analyses the trends in within-country inequality during the post-World War II period, with particular attention to the last 20 years, on the basis of a review of the relevant literature and of an econometric analysis of inequality trends...

• Econometrics
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper points to some elementary conflicts between the claims of interpersonal and intergroup justice as they manifest themselves in the process of seeking a real-valued index of poverty which is required to satisfy certain seemingly desirable...

• Sociology of economics
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

Trade liberalization, by aligning domestic prices with world prices, is envisaged to bring welfare gains to a country. In the case of Indian agriculture, owing to the vastness and diversity of the sector, the impact is likely to be profoundly unequal...

• Agriculture
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Working Paper

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of interrelationships among the determinants of the quality of life (QOL). We show that various measures of well-being are highly sensitive to domains of QOL that are considered in the...

• Equality and inequality
• Public expenditure
• Index numbers (Economics)

Working Paper

Typical welfare and inequality measures are required to be Lorenz consistent which guarantees that inequality decreases and welfare increases as a result of a progressive transfer. We explore the implications for welfare and inequality measurement of...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

This paper proposes a concept of inequality comparisons with ordinal multidimensional categorical data. In our model, one population is more unequal than another when they have common arithmetic median outcomes and the first can be obtained from the...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

This study traces the interactions between economic growth, income inequality and consumption poverty in a sample of African countries during the 1990s. It draws on the much-improved household data sets now available in the region. It finds that...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Poverty

Working Paper

In this paper we present two composite indices of globalization. The first is based on the Kearney/Foreign Policy magazine and the second is obtained from principal component analysis. They indicate which countries have become most globalized and...

• Economic integration
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Working Paper

This paper analyses regional data on inequality and poverty in Russia during 1994-2000 using published series from the regionally representative Household Budget Survey. The paper finds that the share of inequality in Russia coming from the between...

• Equality and inequality
• Convergence
• Poverty

Working Paper

This study examines the role of women's intra-household status relative to men in children's food security in Pakistan. Data from the 1991 Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS) yield a measure of evidence of a positive relation between women's...

• Children
• Equality and inequality
• Food security

Working Paper

China’s recent accession to the WTO is expected to accelerate its integration into the world economy, which aggravates concerns over the impact of globalization on the already rising inter-region income inequality in China. This paper discusses China...

• Econometric models
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Working Paper

Using an audit experiment carried out on of India’s largest real estate websites, we document striking variations between landlords’ treatment of upper-caste Hindus, Other Backward Castes, Scheduled Castes, and Muslims. We find strong evidence of...

• Caste
• Discrimination in housing
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

Tracking poverty is predicated on the availability of comparable consumption data and reliable price deflators. However, regular series of strictly comparable data are only rarely available. Poverty prediction methods that track consumption...

• Consumption
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

This paper reports levels of income inequality and poverty in four Central and Eastern European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia. Unlike many previous researchers who examine transition economies, we aggregate the detailed...

• Equality and inequality
• Households
• Income distribution

Working Paper

This paper uses six nationally representative household consumption surveys to develop successive poverty profiles for Indonesia over a fifteen-year period of sustained high growth followed by rapid contraction. Adopting a ‘cost-of-basic-needs’...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Poverty

Working Paper

Based on a statistical procedure that combines household survey data with population census data, this paper presents estimates of inequality for three developing countries at a level of disaggregation far below that allowed by household surveys...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Regional economics

Working Paper

Two precisely comparable national household surveys relating to 1988 and 1995 are used to analyse changes in the inequality of income in urban China. Over those seven years province mean income per capita grew rapidly but diverged across provinces...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

A considerable literature exists on the measurement of income inequality in China and its increasing trend. Much less is known, however, about the driving forces of this trend and their quantitative contributions. Conventional decompositions, by...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Regional economics

Working Paper

This paper constructs and analyses a long-run time-series for regional inequality in China from the Communist Revolution to the present. There have been three peaks of inequality in the last fifty years, coinciding with the Great Famine of the late...

• Central planning
• Communist
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

We argue that spatial inequality of industry location is a primary cause of spatial income inequality in developing nations. We focus on understanding the process of spatial industrial variation—identifying the spatial factors that have cost...

• Equality and inequality
• Industrial policy
• Industrial productivity

Working Paper

Measuring poverty remains a complex and contentious issue. This is particularly true in sub-Saharan Africa where poverty rates are higher, information bases typically weaker, and the underlying determinants of welfare relatively volatile. This paper...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

Many commentators have noted the existence of a historical correlation between cities and democratization. This image of the city as an inherently civic space is linked to the notion that the spatial concentration intrinsic to urban contexts promotes...

• Democracy
• Democratization
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This study focuses on the city of São Paulo, Brazil and examines the ways in which irregular and illegal growth have influenced the collective action of social movements of the urban poor. The study describes how São Paulo grew as a socially...

• Equality and inequality
• Social movement
• Urban planning

Working Paper

The study presents recent global evidence on the transformation of economic growth to poverty reduction in developing countries, with emphasis on the role of income inequality. The focus is on the period since the early/mid-1990s when growth in these...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Government policy (Poor)

Working Paper

This paper tests using survey data from China whether individual health is associated with income and community-level income inequality. Although poor health and high inequality are key features of many developing countries, most of the earlier...

• Equality and inequality
• Health
• Income

Working Paper

The transition to a market economy in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (FSU) has been associated with greater inequality and social stratification. Living standards have fallen for the majority of people, unemployment and poverty are high...

• Equality and inequality
• Post-communism
• Poverty

Blog

by James Stewart March 2016

On 23 March researchers, policy makers, and politicians gathered at the Stockholm School of Economics (or joined online via the webcast) to hear...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty
• Social security

Working Paper

Bourguignon and Fields (‘Poverty Measures and Anti-Poverty Policy’) and Gangopadhyay and Subramanian (‘Optimal Budgetary Intervention in Poverty Alleviation Schemes’) have derived optimal budgetary rules for the redress of poverty through direct...

• Equality and inequality
• Government policy (Poor)
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper is a review and commentary, from both ethical and informational perspectives, of some known results in optimal anti-poverty budgetary rules for two kinds of intervention, direct income transfers and wage employment programmes.

• Equality and inequality
• Government policy (Poor)
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

The causes of the slow growth of CFA countries are investigated. There is little difference in this respect between the CFA and other sub-Saharan African countries. Since 1970, GDP growth in the CFA countries has shown no significant trend but one or...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

This paper establishes the principles which should govern the welfare and inequality analysis of heterogeneous income distributions. Two basic criteria—the ‘equity preference’ condition and the ‘compensation principle’—are shown to be fundamentally...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

Recent research regarding property rights and economic development often treats property rights security in a country as homogeneous, although protecting the private entitlements of some can entail preventing others from claiming and controlling...

• Equality and inequality
• Law
• Minorities

Working Paper

Absolute poverty lines are often derived from the cost of obtaining sufficient calories. Where staples vary across regions, such poverty lines may differ depending on whether they are set using national or regional food baskets. Regional poverty...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper reviews the theory and application of decomposition techniques in the context of spatial inequality. It establishes some new theoretical results with potentially wide applicability, and examines empirical evidence drawn from a large number...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Index numbers (Economics)

Working Paper

In the age of globalization, the question whether inequality in the world rose or fell down, is a hot topic. Leading scholars in the field of economic inequality measurement developed methods to estimate empirically the distribution of welfare...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

The objective of this paper is to review a number of issues related to poverty, while taking stock of the ongoing research. Most of the remaining unresolved issues in poverty analysis are related directly or indirectly to the dynamics of poverty...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

The paper analyses the changes in tax policy, tax/GDP ratios, tax incidence and income inequality which have taken place in Latin America during the last decade against the background of the changes observed in these variables during the liberal...

• Equality and inequality
• Gross national product
• Policy sciences

Working Paper

The paper tracks recent changes in the components of social protection in Latin America, the reforms to social insurance in the 1990s and the growth of social assistance in the 2000s, and assesses their effects on poverty and inequality and...

• Economic policy
• Equality and inequality
• Social security

Working Paper

This paper deals with three questions: (1) What are ‘subjective’ measures? (2) What is ‘well-being’? and (3) Are subjective measures of well-being of use for policymaking, in particular in developing nations? The first question is answered by making...

• Equality and inequality
• Policy sciences
• Quality of life

Working Paper

Using original survey data on Senegal that include an individualized measure of consumption, we study the role played by land inheritance, other bequests and parental background as influences on an adult’s economic welfare and economic activities...

• Consumption
• Equality and inequality
• Land tenure

Working Paper

The United Nations Millennium Declaration commits to halving extreme poverty between 2000 and 2015. The South African government has set a goal of halving poverty by 2014, although the meaning of this goal has not yet been defined. This article...

• Distribution
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

The focus of this paper is the effect of contemporary globalization on poverty and inequality in cities of the ‘global south’. Specifically it addresses the impact of globalization on marginalized communities—slums, squatter settlements and...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• Poverty

Blog

by Kunal Sen April 2024

More than 960 million Indians will head to the polls in the world’s biggest election between April 19 and early June. The ruling Bharatiya Janata...

• India
• Equality and inequality
• Decent Work

Blog

by Aicha Robei May 2024

Future tools and foresight thinking are crucial instruments to improve decision-making for a common future. As a Youth Foresight Fellow with UNICEF, I...

• Youth
• Climate change
• Equality and inequality

Report

• Peacebuilding
• Peace
• Inequalities

Journal Special Issue

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Journal Special Issue

Many developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and in health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement
• Poverty

Journal Special Issue

Many developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and in health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...

• Equality and inequality
• Human capital
• Poverty

Research Brief

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, poor in natural resources, and with low levels of human development. Its economy remains agricultural and focused on food crops and cotton production. Over the last twenty years it has experienced...

• Agriculture
• Equality and inequality
• Food security

Research Brief

The majority of income inequality occurs at the tails of the income distribution The Gini coefficient does not provide a representative measure of income inequality When the top 10% of income earners expand their share of national income it often...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Journal Special Issue

Many developing and transition countries have considerable regional variation in average household income, poverty, and in health and educational status. National human development indicators can therefore mislead policy-makers when large regional...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Regional economics

Journal Special Issue

Getting an accurate picture of poverty and inequality trends and patterns in the world's most populous country is central to understanding changes in global inequality and poverty – these alter significantly when China is included or excluded...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Rural development

Journal Special Issue

Globalization offers new opportunities for accelerating development and poverty reduction, but also poses new challenges for policymakers. And there is much concern about the distribution of benefits; in particular whether the poor gain from...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• International trade

Journal Special Issue

Getting an accurate picture of poverty and inequality trends and patterns in the world’s most populous country is central to understanding changes in global inequality and poverty – these alter significantly when China is included or excluded. China...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Poverty

Journal Special Issue

This Policy Arena examines some of the development challenges faced by SIDS. It brings together a collection of papers arising from the UNU-WIDER project Fragility and Development. These investigations were presented at the UNU-WIDER project meeting...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

We study a model of human capital driven growth, where the parent’s human capital serves as a productive input in the child’s human capital production only when that of the former exceeds a minimum level required to intellectually contribute to the...

• Economic growth
• Education
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This study focuses on growth, poverty and inequality in Rwanda. We take a broad perspective, in two respects. First, we consider a long time period so as to compare the current situation with the pre-war situation, allowing us to assess whether the...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Blog

Alice Amsden, Alisa DiCaprio, and James Robinson To understand what role elites play in the process of economic development, we need to establish...

• Domestic relations
• Elite (Social sciences)
• Equality and inequality

Journal Article

Changes in relative prices of commodities consumed in different shares across income groups can be expected to alter real income differentials between these groups. Using Mozambican household budget survey and price data from 2002/03 and 2008/09, we...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Index numbers (Economics)

Journal Special Issue

The papers in this special issue were originally presented at a World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) Conference on Health Equity in 2006. They look beyond the current literature in terms of measures of inequality, indicators...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Health

Working Paper

We adapt the standardized Poverty Line Estimation Analytical Software (PLEASe) computer code stream based on Arndt and Simler’s (2010) utility-consistent approach to analyse poverty in Ethiopia in 2000, 2005, and 2011. Several data-related issues...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

This paper uses recently published top 1% income share series in studying the inequality– development association. The top income shares data are of high quality and cover about a century for some countries and thus provide an interesting opportunity...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

In Sub-Saharan Africa we find some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Nevertheless, we generally know very little about the historical development of inequality. In this paper we look at how inequality developed in colonial and...

• Colonies
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

Researchers often rely on household survey data to investigate health disparities and the incidence and prevalence of illness. These self-reported health measures are often biased due to information asymmetry or differences in reference groups. Using...

• Equality and inequality
• Healthcare
• Public health

Working Paper

The degree of choice households have over their consumption expenditure is critical in deciding their economic class. Applying our measure to Egyptian household budget surveys, we estimate the population size of the middle class in Egypt and assess...

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

This paper attempts to measure the extent of inequality within households and its contribution to overall levels of inequality in child well-being. The paper analyses the distribution of resources (outcomes) between girls and boys for four indicators...

• Children
• Equality and inequality
• Households

Working Paper

This paper examines the relationship between trade (exports), growth, and inequality, using a panel of 100 countries over 30 years (1980 to 2010). As there is no clear theoretical relationship between trade (exports) and inequality, and as inequality...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Policy Brief

The UNU-WIDER project on 'Spatial Disparities in Human Development' has collected and analyzed evidence on the extent of spatial inequalities within developing countries. The studies find that spatial inequalities are high, with disparities between...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• Regional economics

Working Paper

The democratic government in South Africa has developed a system of social grants to combat the high levels of poverty and inequality inherited from the apartheid regime. With the help of modest economic growth and an associated increase in per...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Poverty

Working Paper

Local institutional and structural (meso) factors can play a role in mediating the returns to a macro-social policy. I focus on the Brazilian cash-transfer-programme Bolsa Familia and check how contextual features influence the returns to transfers...

• Equality and inequality
• Institutional economics
• Government policy (Poor)

Blog

Wim Naudé and James C. MacGee Globally, wealth is very unequally distributed, both within countries and between countries. The UNU-WIDER project on...

• Economic policy (Business enterprises)
• Capital market
• Entrepreneurship

Journal Article

We provide a comprehensive approach for analyzing the evolution of poverty using Mozambique as a case study. Bringing together data from disparate sources, we develop a novel 'back-casting' framework that links a dynamic computable general...

• Equality and inequality
• Household survey
• Poverty measurement

Journal Special Issue

The project centers on the inter-linkages between the major developing countries of Brazil, India, China and South Africa and the global economy, with a special emphasis on the implications of China's growth on smaller economies and the rest of the...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• International trade

Journal Special Issue

Globalization offers new opportunities for accelerating development and poverty reduction, but also poses new challenges for policymakers. And there is much concern about the distribution of benefits; in particular whether the poor gain from...

• Equality and inequality
• Globalization
• Poverty measurement

Report

The ReCom – Research and Communication on Foreign Aid – programme produced 247 original studies. More than 300 researchers from 59 countries came together and provided evidence on what does and could work in development, and what can be transferred...

• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Economic development
• Economic growth

Working Paper

Ghana is relatively rare among Sub-Saharan African countries in having had sustained positive growth every year since the mid-1980s. This paper analyses the nature of the growth and then presents an analysis of the evolution of both consumption...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

After many years of relatively slow growth, Tanzania’s national accounts data report accelerated aggregate growth since around 2000. Our analysis shows that there has been somewhat slower growth in private consumption and in sectors such as...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

Human capital models imply that both the distribution of education and returns to education affect earnings inequality. Decomposition of these ‘quantity’ and ‘price’ components have been important in understanding changes in earnings inequality in...

• Education
• Equality and inequality
• Wage differentials

Working Paper

This paper investigates how two effects drive wedges between nominal and real inequality estimates. The effects are caused by (i) differences in the composition of consumption over the income distribution coupled with differential inflation of...

• Consumption
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

Since 1994, a great deal has been accomplished. We argue that poverty reduction was temporarily sidelined in the 2000s. A series of shocks, especially the fuel and food price crisis of 2008, combined with poor productivity growth in agriculture and a...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper evaluates fairness in educational achievements through the ordered pair (WEEOp, IEOp) whose components provide: (i) A measure of social welfare which accounts for the achievement of less-advantaged pupils and (ii) a synthetic index of...

• Education
• Equality and inequality
• Public welfare

Journal Article

Using the 2004–2005 India Human Development Survey data, we estimate and decompose the earnings of household businesses owned by historically marginalized social groups known as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCSTs) and non-SCSTs across the earnings...

• Caste
• Equality and inequality
• Microeconomics

Blog

by Jane Harrigan December 2011

Jane Harrigan Donor political interests have heavily influenced aid flows to North Africa in the past. This has reduced the effectiveness of aid which...

• Democratization
• Economic assistance and foreign aid
• Equality and inequality

Policy Brief

In simple language and with numerous concrete examples, this policy brief analyses the impact - among others - of key ex-ante factors such as acute 'horizontal inequality' between social groups in the distribution of assets, state jobs, social...

• Equality and inequality
• International relations
• Social conflict

Policy Brief

This policy brief reports the main findings of the study on changes in within-country income inequality over the last two decades and on the links between poverty, inequality, and growth. It focuses on inequality at the national level, i.e. the...

• Economic development
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Policy Brief

This WIDER Policy Brief examins issues such as liberalizing migration policies; protecting refugees in regions of origin; addressing the root causes of migration and refugee flows; influencing perceptions of the costs and benefits of migration; and...

• Equality and inequality
• Labour mobility
• Poverty

Working Paper

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the growth performance of the Cameroonian economy from independence in 1960 to date, and then to use this as a background for the analysis of poverty, inequality, and non-monetary outcomes. The analysis of...

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Microeconomics

Working Paper

This paper aims at measuring and analysing for the first time inequality in the distribution of expenditures among households in Togo according to the characteristics of household heads. The study is based on the most recent survey (QUIBB 2006) and...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Index numbers (Economics)

Working Paper

Our hypothesis is that Nigeria is going through a process of economic polarization. An analysis of this type is new for Nigeria; the limited availability of comparable data has hindered an investigation that requires data series not too close in time...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution
• Poverty measurement

Working Paper

This paper, using a new set of social development indices, explores the measurement of social development across Africa, and how this relates to broader development patterns and measurement. Development practitioners worldwide increasingly recognize...

• Economic development
• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper examines the changing nature of occupational labour-market trends in South Africa and the resulting impact on wages. We observe high levels of demand for skilled labour that have intensified a trend already established before 1994. Over...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Human capital

Working Paper

Changes in the relative prices of commodities consumed in different shares across income groups are known to influence real measures of inequality. Using household budget survey and price data in Mozambique from 2002/03 and 2008/09, we show that...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Index numbers (Economics)

Working Paper

Post-apartheid poverty and inequality trends have been the subject of intensive analysis, yet relatively little attention has been devoted to the impact of differential price movements on the measurement of poverty and inequality. This paper aims to...

• Equality and inequality
• Inflation
• Macroeconomics

Working Paper

This paper seeks to measure and explain changes in incomes, inequality, and poverty in Kenya. It starts from a very long-term perspective covering the last century, but then focuses on a more detailed analysis of the recent period for which data from...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Poverty measurement

Policy Brief

While the economic opportunities offered by globalization can be large, a question is often raised as to whether the actual distribution of gains is fair, in particular, whether the poor benefit less than proportionately from globalization and could...

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Globalization

Policy Brief

This Policy Brief is an outcome of the UNU-WIDER research project 'Social Development Indicators'. The overall aim of the project was to provide insights into how human well-being might be better conceptualized and, in particular, measured, by...

• Economic development
• Methodology (Economics)
• Equality and inequality

Working Paper

This paper discusses different approaches to the measurement of global interpersonal in equality. Trends in global interpersonal inequality during 1975-2005 are measured using data from UNU-WIDER’s World Income Inequality Database. In order to better...

• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

We use Arndt and Simler’s (2010) utility-consistent approach to calculating poverty lines to analyse poverty in Madagascar in 2001, 2005 and 2010. Because two major political crises occurred between the survey periods, the snapshots of national...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

Disappointment was widespread when rapid economic growth since 2005, coupled with a smallholder-targeted fertilizer subsidy program, failed to significantly reduce poverty in Malawi. Official estimates for 2011 showed a 1.7 percentage point decline...

• Equality and inequality
• Poverty measurement
• Rural development

Working Paper

Burkina Faso has experienced quite significant aggregate growth over the past two decades, but that growth has not been transformed into poverty reduction. The key obstacles preventing large-scale escape from poverty are very high population growth...

• Economic growth
• Equality and inequality
• Structural adjustment (Economic policy)

Working Paper

We use Arndt and Simler’s utility-consistent approach to calculating poverty lines to analyse poverty in Ethiopia in 2000, 2005, and 2011. Poverty reduction was steady but uneven, with gains greatest in urban areas in the first half of the decade...

• Econometric models (Economic development)
• Equality and inequality
• Poverty

Working Paper

This paper discusses dimensions of inequality in sub-Saharan Africa and their causes. It starts with a review of the empirical evidence about inequality during the colonial period as well as the post-independence era. Then it discusses the forces...

• Education
• Equality and inequality
• Human capital

Working Paper

The paper proposes an analysis of the recent distributional dynamics in Uganda. This analysis is performed by endorsing an opportunity egalitarian perspective, in order to evaluate the outcome dynamics of specific groups of the population and infer...

• Consumption
• Equality and inequality
• Income distribution

Working Paper

This paper presents new evidence on the study of income mobility in Ecuador over the period 2004–11. We utilize longitudinal data of individual income tax returns to measure income mobility both at the top and at the middle of the income distribution...

• Equality and inequality
• Income
• Income distribution