On the Unequal Inequality of Poor Communities

Elbers, Chris ; Lanjouw, Peter F. ; Mistiaen, Johan A. ; Ö ; zler, Berk ; Simler, Ken

World Bank

关键词: inequality;    poverty;    poor communities;   

DOI  :  10.1093/wber/lhh046
RP-ID  :  77480

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Communities differ in important ways intheir needs, capacities, and circumstances. Because centralgovernments are not able to discern these differences fully,they seek to achieve their policy objectives by relying ondecentralized mechanisms that use local information.Household and individual characteristics within communitiescan also vary substantially. A growing body of theoreticalliterature suggests that inequality within communities caninfluence policy outcomes in ways that are either harmful orhelpful, depending on the circumstances. Until recently,empirical investigations into the impact of inequality havebeen held back by a lack of systematic evidence oncommunity-level inequality. This study uses household surveyand population census data to estimate per capitaconsumption inequality within communities in threedeveloping economies. It finds that communities varymarkedly in their degree of inequality. It also shows thatthere should be no presumption that inequality is lesssevere in poor communities. The kind of community-levelinequality estimates generated here can be used in designingand evaluating decentralized antipoverty programs.