Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low

While the Azerbaijan household income and expenditure survey (HIES) data satisfy most empirical regularities expected in a typical household survey data, the inequality measures based on the data are unusually low. For example, for the latest three years for which we have data (2002 - 2004), the con...

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Main Author:	Ersado, Lire
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2012
Subjects:	AGGREGATE DATA CASH TRANSFERS CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES DATA COLLECTION DATA QUALITY DEVELOPING WORLD EARNINGS INEQUALITY ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC INEQUALITY ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES EQUALIZING EFFECT EXPENDITURE FOOD CONSUMPTION GDP GINI COEFFICIENT GROWTH RATE HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD HEADS HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME ON FOOD INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY INDICES INEQUALITY MEASURES LOW INCOME MACROECONOMIC STABILITY MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASURING POVERTY NATIONAL INCOME 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PENSION INCOME PENSIONS PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA INCOME POLICY RESEARCH POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POSITIVE CORRELATION POVERTY ANALYSIS POVERTY ASSESSMENT POVERTY GAP POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROFILE POVERTY RATES POVERTY SEVERITY PRIMARY SAMPLING UNITS PRIVATE TRANSFERS PSU QUESTIONNAIRES REGIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL LEVELS RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL HOUSEHOLDS SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL TRANSFERS TARGETING TOTAL CONSUMPTION TOTAL INCOME TRANSFER PROGRAMS WEALTHY HOUSEHOLDS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/09/7063026/azerbaijans-household-survey-data-explaining-inequality-so-low http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9267

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recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-92672021-04-23T14:02:41Z Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low Ersado, Lire AGGREGATE DATA CASH TRANSFERS CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES DATA COLLECTION DATA QUALITY DEVELOPING WORLD EARNINGS INEQUALITY ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC INEQUALITY ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES EQUALIZING EFFECT EXPENDITURE FOOD CONSUMPTION GDP GINI COEFFICIENT GROWTH RATE HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD HEADS HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME ON FOOD INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY INDICES INEQUALITY MEASURES LOW INCOME MACROECONOMIC STABILITY MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASURING POVERTY NATIONAL INCOME 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PENSION INCOME PENSIONS PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA INCOME POLICY RESEARCH POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POSITIVE CORRELATION POVERTY ANALYSIS POVERTY ASSESSMENT POVERTY GAP POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROFILE POVERTY RATES POVERTY SEVERITY PRIMARY SAMPLING UNITS PRIVATE TRANSFERS PSU QUESTIONNAIRES REGIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL LEVELS RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL HOUSEHOLDS SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL TRANSFERS TARGETING TOTAL CONSUMPTION TOTAL INCOME TRANSFER PROGRAMS WEALTHY HOUSEHOLDS While the Azerbaijan household income and expenditure survey (HIES) data satisfy most empirical regularities expected in a typical household survey data, the inequality measures based on the data are unusually low. For example, for the latest three years for which we have data (2002 - 2004), the consumption Gini coefficient (the commonly used summary measure of inequality) is in the range of 16 - 18 percent. This is among the lowest Gini coefficients ever observed in any country, and is extremely low even with the standard of countries generally considered as most equal in the world. Azerbaijan, a transitional economy with a significant natural resource base, is unlikely to be the most equal country in the world. The objective of this paper is to investigate why inequality measures are unusually low in the Azerbaijan household survey data. The author presents a methodology for diagnosing and identifying the potential sources of low inequality in the data, including cluster analysis at the primary sampling unit level. The main inference from the findings of the cluster analysis is that the observed low inequality indices are not due to poor supervision of the interviewers and the data collection process. The author finds that the main culprits for the observed low inequality in the HIES data are (1) the low participation rates of wealthy households in the household surveys, and (2) the widespread availability of well-targeted public and private transfers. 2012-06-26T17:59:28Z 2012-06-26T17:59:28Z 2006-09 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/09/7063026/azerbaijans-household-survey-data-explaining-inequality-so-low http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9267 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4009 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Europe and Central Asia Commonwealth of Independent States Azerbaijan
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	AGGREGATE DATA CASH TRANSFERS CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES DATA COLLECTION DATA QUALITY DEVELOPING WORLD EARNINGS INEQUALITY ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC INEQUALITY ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES EQUALIZING EFFECT EXPENDITURE FOOD CONSUMPTION GDP GINI COEFFICIENT GROWTH RATE HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD HEADS HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME ON FOOD INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY INDICES INEQUALITY MEASURES LOW INCOME MACROECONOMIC STABILITY MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASURING POVERTY NATIONAL INCOME 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PENSION INCOME PENSIONS PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA INCOME POLICY RESEARCH POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POSITIVE CORRELATION POVERTY ANALYSIS POVERTY ASSESSMENT POVERTY GAP POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROFILE POVERTY RATES POVERTY SEVERITY PRIMARY SAMPLING UNITS PRIVATE TRANSFERS PSU QUESTIONNAIRES REGIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL LEVELS RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL HOUSEHOLDS SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL TRANSFERS TARGETING TOTAL CONSUMPTION TOTAL INCOME TRANSFER PROGRAMS WEALTHY HOUSEHOLDS
spellingShingle	AGGREGATE DATA CASH TRANSFERS CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES DATA COLLECTION DATA QUALITY DEVELOPING WORLD EARNINGS INEQUALITY ECONOMIC GROWTH ECONOMIC INEQUALITY ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES EQUALIZING EFFECT EXPENDITURE FOOD CONSUMPTION GDP GINI COEFFICIENT GROWTH RATE HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION HOUSEHOLD DATA HOUSEHOLD HEADS HOUSEHOLD INCOME HOUSEHOLD SURVEY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATA HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS HUMAN CAPITAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME GROUPS INCOME INEQUALITY INCOME ON FOOD INCOMES INEQUALITY INEQUALITY ESTIMATES INEQUALITY INDICES INEQUALITY MEASURES LOW INCOME MACROECONOMIC STABILITY MEAN CONSUMPTION MEASURING POVERTY NATIONAL INCOME 0 HYPOTHESIS OPPORTUNITY COST PENSION INCOME PENSIONS PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA INCOME POLICY RESEARCH POOR POOR HOUSEHOLDS POSITIVE CORRELATION POVERTY ANALYSIS POVERTY ASSESSMENT POVERTY GAP POVERTY MEASURES POVERTY PROFILE POVERTY RATES POVERTY SEVERITY PRIMARY SAMPLING UNITS PRIVATE TRANSFERS PSU QUESTIONNAIRES REGIONAL LEVEL REGIONAL LEVELS RURAL RURAL AREAS RURAL HOUSEHOLDS SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SOCIAL TRANSFERS TARGETING TOTAL CONSUMPTION TOTAL INCOME TRANSFER PROGRAMS WEALTHY HOUSEHOLDS Ersado, Lire Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Commonwealth of Independent States Azerbaijan
relation	Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4009
description	While the Azerbaijan household income and expenditure survey (HIES) data satisfy most empirical regularities expected in a typical household survey data, the inequality measures based on the data are unusually low. For example, for the latest three years for which we have data (2002 - 2004), the consumption Gini coefficient (the commonly used summary measure of inequality) is in the range of 16 - 18 percent. This is among the lowest Gini coefficients ever observed in any country, and is extremely low even with the standard of countries generally considered as most equal in the world. Azerbaijan, a transitional economy with a significant natural resource base, is unlikely to be the most equal country in the world. The objective of this paper is to investigate why inequality measures are unusually low in the Azerbaijan household survey data. The author presents a methodology for diagnosing and identifying the potential sources of low inequality in the data, including cluster analysis at the primary sampling unit level. The main inference from the findings of the cluster analysis is that the observed low inequality indices are not due to poor supervision of the interviewers and the data collection process. The author finds that the main culprits for the observed low inequality in the HIES data are (1) the low participation rates of wealthy households in the household surveys, and (2) the widespread availability of well-targeted public and private transfers.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Ersado, Lire
author_facet	Ersado, Lire
author_sort	Ersado, Lire
title	Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
title_short	Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
title_full	Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
title_fullStr	Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
title_full_unstemmed	Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low
title_sort	azerbaijan’s household survey data : explaining why inequality is so low
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2012
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2006/09/7063026/azerbaijans-household-survey-data-explaining-inequality-so-low http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9267
_version_	1764406521477726208

Azerbaijan’s Household Survey Data : Explaining Why Inequality is So Low

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