Decomposing World Income Distribution : Does the World Have a Middle Class?

Milanovic, Branko ; Yitzhaki, Shlomo

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AVERAGE INCOME;    BETWEEN-GROUP INEQUALITY;    CITIZEN;    CITIZENS;    COUNTRY DATA;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2562
RP-ID  :  WPS2562

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Using national income and expendituredistribution data from 119 countries, the authors decomposetotal income inequality between the individuals in theworld, by continent and by "region" (countriesgrouped by income level). They use a Gini decomposition thatallows for an exact breakdown (without a residual term) ofthe overall Gini by recipients. Looking first at incomeinequality in income between countries is more importantthan inequality within countries. Africa, Latin America, andWestern Europe and North America are quite homogeneouscontinent, with small differences between countries (so thatmost of the inequality on these continents is explained byinequality within countries). Next the authors divide theworld into three groups: the rich G7 countries (and thosewith similar income levels), the less developed countries(those with per capita income less than or equal toBrazil's), and the middle-income countries (those withper capita income between Brazil's and Italy's).They find little overlap between such groups - very fewpeople in developing countries have incomes in the range ofthose in the rich countries.