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Research Brief
A significant empirical literature in economics and political science explores the impact of inequality on major economic and political outcomes; in particular, economic growth, human development and governance.
While the literature offers rich insights and employs diverse data and methods in considering socio-economic inequality, it is notable that existing studies rely almost exclusively on relative measures of inequality, rather than absolute measures. There is strong suggestive evidence that absolute inequality matters more for many people at all levels of society; one prominent illustration being the core concern in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of leaving no one behind in absolute poverty.
The @EQUAL project will focus on four major areas of research:
- Reimagining research on inequality (absolute vs relative measures)
- The impacts of inequality on growth, human development, and governance
- Learning from inequality in Mozambique
- Learning from inequality in Vietnam
It combines cross-national and within-country analysis, exploits both existing datasets and collects new data - through surveys and lab-in-the-field experiments in two country case studies – to reinvent the existing literature on economic inequality by shifting the focus, momentarily, from relative measures of inequality to absolute measures, performs cross-national and intertemporal analysis of the impact that inequality has on economic growth, human development, and governance, and takes a deep dive into two case studies of how inequality impacts these factors, and is impacted by them —in Mozambique and Vietnam.
Key questions
- What are the impacts of inequality on economic growth? On levels of human development, health, and education? And, on governance, state capability, democracy, and institutions?
- What are the implications of reconceptualising and measuring inequality in absolute versus relative terms—with respect to both theoretical predictions and major empirical findings in the literature?
- How do individuals understand, perceive, and act upon inequality? Do ‘absolute’ or ‘relative’ measures better capture contemporary inequalities? How do such understandings vary across contexts or circumstances? How might they vary across ‘dimensions’ of inequality (socio-economic or political)?
- How do experiences of inequality differ between and across countries? How do the experiences of Vietnam and Mozambique compare? How can focused consideration of experiences in particular countries inform cross-country analyses?
Watch this space
All papers, data, and opinion pieces relating to this project, as well as opportunities to engage, will be available on this webpage and at the Development Economics Research Group.
UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
This project centrally addresses SDG 10. Components of it speak directly to SDG 16 (effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions). The project will contribute to the global effort by reconsidering core findings and associated policy recommendations in the fields of economics and political science in light of the absolute measures of inequality we explore.
Team
Focal Points: Rachel Gisselquist (UNU-WIDER), Finn Tarp (DERG), Fernando Luzerno Augusto Carlos Lichucha (Eduardo Mondlane University), Dang Thi Thu Hoai (CIEM)
Core Researchers: Klarizze Puzon, Ines Afonso Roque Ferreira, Hoang Kim Thu, Pham Quang Trung, Moises Silvestre Siuta
Project Support: Iina Kuuttila
Communications: Timothy Shipp
In partnership
The University of Copenhagen Development Economics Research Group (UCPH-DERG)
The Central Institute for Economic Management, Vietnam (CIEM)
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Working Paper
From the bottom 40 to inequality linesA major of focus of global development policy is the aim to achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% (B40) of the population at a rate higher than the national average. We propose an alternative approach to assessing shared prosperity...
Journal Article
Concentration of income and human development: the role of the middle classIn this article, we reassess the relationship between inequality and human development, focusing on the differential role of concentration of income at different parts of the distribution. To do so, we rely on a large global panel of countries over...
Working Paper
Spatial consumption inequality in MozambiqueIn this paper, I show that the trend in spatial inequality in Mozambique almost entirely explains the outstanding surge in inequality in the country over the past decade, as well as its decline immediately after the pandemic, in contrast to its...
Journal Article
The evolution of inequality in Mozambique 1996/97–2019/20After decades of war, Mozambique experienced sustained economic growth and poverty reduction from the mid-1990s. However, these positive dynamics started to revert from 2015. Meanwhile, inequality stagnated in the period 1996/97–2008/09, before...
Working Paper
Socioeconomic inequality in Viet NamThis study provides an introduction to major discussions and core findings on inequalities in Viet Nam, drawing on a review of recent research, consideration of how inequality is discussed in legal documents, and an analysis of inequality using...
Journal Article
The Lifespan Disparity DatasetMonitoring health is key for identifying priorities in public health planning and improving healthcare services. Life expectancy has conventionally been regarded as a valuable indicator to compare the health status of different populations. However...
Working Paper
Inequality and institutional outcomes in Viet NamBetter understanding of inequality, including its relationship to governance and other key outcomes, is relevant both to academic researchers and to policy-makers. Nevertheless, efforts to establish causal relationships empirically remain hampered by...
Working Paper
Global income polarizationThis paper presents the first global and regional estimates of polarization and bipolarization spanning the period 1960–2020. The study relies on group data to implement a flexible parametric model to obtain the global income distribution and...
Working Paper
An open database on inequality and polarization in length of life (1950–2021)Monitoring health is key for identifying priorities in public health planning and improving healthcare services. Life expectancy has conventionally been regarded as a valuable indicator to compare the health status of different populations. However...
Working Paper
Communication matters: sensitivity in fairness evaluations across wealth inequality expressions and levelsThis paper seeks to understand whether the way in which inequality is communicated through measurements influences individuals’ fairness perceptions regarding wealth inequality. It begins from the premise that prominent measures of inequality, such...
Journal Article
Theoretical models of inequalityUsing illustrations from research on inequality, this essay makes a case for ‘behavioural synthesis’, that is the reconciliation between neo-classical and behavioural economics. Focusing on selected theories of absolute and relative inequality, we...
Working Paper
Democracy clusters and patterns of inequalityThis paper employs k-means clustering, a multidimensional pattern recognition method, to categorize countries using information from five Varieties of Democracy indices. K-means country clusters are similar but not entirely identical to both k...
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