Decomposing World Income Distribution : Does the World Have a Middle Class?
Using national income and expenditure distribution data from 119 countries, the authors decompose total income inequality between the individuals in the world, by continent and by "region" (countries grouped by income level). They use a G...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2001/03/1003175/decomposing-world-income-distribution-world-middle-class http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19693 |
| Summary: | Using national income and expenditure
distribution data from 119 countries, the authors decompose
total income inequality between the individuals in the
world, by continent and by "region" (countries
grouped by income level). They use a Gini decomposition that
allows for an exact breakdown (without a residual term) of
the overall Gini by recipients. Looking first at income
inequality in income between countries is more important
than inequality within countries. Africa, Latin America, and
Western Europe and North America are quite homogeneous
continent, with small differences between countries (so that
most of the inequality on these continents is explained by
inequality within countries). Next the authors divide the
world into three groups: the rich G7 countries (and those
with similar income levels), the less developed countries
(those with per capita income less than or equal to
Brazil's), and the middle-income countries (those with
per capita income between Brazil's and Italy's).
They find little overlap between such groups - very few
people in developing countries have incomes in the range of
those in the rich countries. |
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