The Distribution of Consumption Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa : The Inequality among All Africans

Jirasavetakul, La-Bhus Fah ; Lakner, Christoph

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: LIVING STANDARDS;    PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION;    GROWTH RATES;    INCOME SHARE;    POVERTY LINE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7557
RP-ID  :  WPS7557

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper uses a set of nationalhousehold surveys to study the regional Sub-Saharan Africadistribution of consumption expenditure among individualsduring 1993 to 2008. The analysis puts the disparities inliving standards that exist among persons in Africa intocontext with the disparities that exist within and betweenAfrican countries. Regional interpersonal inequality hasincreased (from a Gini index of 52 percent in 1993 to 56percent in 2008), driven by increasing disparities in livingstandards across countries, while there has been nosystematic increase in within-country inequality. For theAfrican distribution as a whole, growth of consumptionexpenditure (from household surveys) has been low (around 1percent per year). This growth has been uneven and as aresult the richest 5 percent of Africans received around 40percent of the total gains, while the bottom third stagnated.