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:
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.
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.
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.
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
The University of Copenhagen Development Economics Research Group (UCPH-DERG)
The Central Institute for Economic Management, Vietnam (CIEM)
In 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...
After 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...
This 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...
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...
Better 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...
This 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...
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...
This 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...
Using 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...
This 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...
What is the relationship between inequality and growth? This question has occupied and fascinated social scientists for more than a century. This chapter critically reviews the recent empirical and theoretical literature on the complex interplay...
Reducing poverty and inequality and promoting inclusive growth are fundamental to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved by the UN General Assembly in September 2015. The first target of SDG1 is to eradicate extreme poverty...
Research on how income inequality affects borrowing behaviour reignited after the 2008 global recession. One prevailing theory is that rising income...
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