IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v26y2022i2p918-940.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interregional inequality in Africa, convergence, and multiple equilibria: Evidence from nighttime light data

Author

Listed:
  • Kacou Yves Thierry Kacou

Abstract

Understanding the dynamics of interregional inequality in Africa is important when formulating development policies. In this paper, we investigate the convergence pattern of regional inequality within 49 African countries over the period 1992–2012 using satellite night‐light‐based inequality proxies. We find evidence of multiple equilibria in regional income inequality. Countries belonging to clubs with high regional inequality level do not show any tendency to converge toward the clubs with low regional inequality, indicating that these countries are indeed stuck in regional income inequality traps. The idea of regional income inequality traps is also confirmed by a distributional dynamic analysis that uncovered evidence of regional income inequality persistence with a limited degree of mobility between convergence clubs. From the convergence analysis, we found that the initial conditions in the economic development, natural resource rent, urbanization, political institutions, development aid programs, and infrastructure are very important determinants of regional income inequality. Our findings provide policy makers some direction for future economic policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Kacou Yves Thierry Kacou, 2022. "Interregional inequality in Africa, convergence, and multiple equilibria: Evidence from nighttime light data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 918-940, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:26:y:2022:i:2:p:918-940
    DOI: 10.1111/rode.12851
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12851
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/rode.12851?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lessmann, Christian & Seidel, André, 2017. "Regional inequality, convergence, and its determinants – A view from outer space," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 110-132.
    2. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2009. "Economic transition and growth," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(7), pages 1153-1185, November.
    3. Peter C. B. Phillips & Donggyu Sul, 2007. "Transition Modeling and Econometric Convergence Tests," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(6), pages 1771-1855, November.
    4. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:15:y:2007:i:15:p:1-9 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Quah, Danny T, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1045-1055, July.
    6. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    7. Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1994. "Testing the Convergence Hypothesis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 576-579, August.
    8. Fábio Gomes, 2007. "Convergence in Income Inequality: the Case of Brazilian Municipalities," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 15(15), pages 1-9.
    9. Bernard, Andrew B. & Durlauf, Steven N., 1996. "Interpreting tests of the convergence hypothesis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1-2), pages 161-173.
    10. Bartkowska, Monika & Riedl, Aleksandra, 2012. "Regional convergence clubs in Europe: Identification and conditioning factors," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 22-31.
    11. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    12. Nicholas Apergis & Christina Christou & Stephen Miller, 2012. "Convergence patterns in financial development: evidence from club convergence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 1011-1040, December.
    13. Holmes, Mark J. & Otero, Jesús & Panagiotidis, Theodore, 2019. "Property heterogeneity and convergence club formation among local house prices," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-13.
    14. Galor, Oded, 1996. "Convergence? Inferences from Theoretical Models," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1056-1069, July.
    15. Quah, Danny, 1996. "Twin peaks : growth and convergence in models of distribution dynamics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2278, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Kerui Du, 2017. "Econometric convergence test and club clustering using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 17(4), pages 882-900, December.
    17. Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Inequality convergence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 351-356, September.
    18. Hodrick, Robert J & Prescott, Edward C, 1997. "Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, February.
    19. Carlos Mendez, 2019. "Lack of Global Convergence and the Formation of Multiple Welfare Clubs across Countries: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-17, July.
    20. Anthony Mveyange, 2015. "Night lights and regional income inequality in Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-085, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    21. Tian, Xu & Zhang, Xiaoheng & Zhou, Yingheng & Yu, Xiaohua, 2016. "Regional income inequality in China revisited: A perspective from club convergence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 50-58.
    22. Christian Lessmann, 2016. "Regional Inequality and Internal Conflict," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 17(2), pages 157-191, May.
    23. Bernard, Andrew B & Durlauf, Steven N, 1995. "Convergence in International Output," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 97-108, April-Jun.
    24. T. W. Swan, 1956. "ECONOMIC GROWTH and CAPITAL ACCUMULATION," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 334-361, November.
    25. Jonathan Temple, 1999. "The New Growth Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 112-156, March.
    26. Danny Quah, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers dp0324, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    27. Hirte, Georg & Lessmann, Christian & Seidel, André, 2020. "International trade, geographic heterogeneity and interregional inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    28. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," CEPR Discussion Papers 1586, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    29. Baumol, William J, 1986. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: What the Long-run Data Show," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1072-1085, December.
    30. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Empirics for economic growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1353-1375, June.
    31. Edward L. Ullman, 1958. "Regional Development And The Geography Of Concentration," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 179-198, January.
    32. Chambers, Dustin & Dhongde, Shatakshee, 2016. "Convergence in income distributions: Evidence from a panel of countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 262-270.
    33. Bandyopadhyay, Sanghamitra, 2012. "Convergence clubs in incomes across Indian states: Is there evidence of a neighbours’ effect?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(3), pages 565-570.
    34. Quah, Danny T, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 27-59, March.
    35. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, 2011. "Rich States, Poor States: Convergence And Polarisation In India," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 58(3), pages 414-436, July.
    36. Danny Quah, 1996. "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics," CEP Discussion Papers dp0280, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    37. Stefano Magrini, 2009. "Why Should We Analyse Convergence Using the Distribution Dynamics Approach?," SCIENZE REGIONALI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 8(1), pages 5-34.
    38. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2005. "Is there convergence in income inequality levels among the European regions?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(12), pages 763-767.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Charles Shaaba Saba & Nicholas Ngepah & Christian Nsiah, 2020. "Convergence in military expenditure and economic growth in Africa and its regional economic communities: evidence from a club clustering algorithm," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 1832344-183, January.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Christina Christou & Stephen Miller, 2012. "Convergence patterns in financial development: evidence from club convergence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 1011-1040, December.
    3. Paul Johnson & Chris Papageorgiou, 2020. "What Remains of Cross-Country Convergence?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 58(1), pages 129-175, March.
    4. Arfat Ahmad Sofi & Subash Sasidharan & Mohammad Younus Bhat, 2023. "Economic growth and club convergence: Is there a neighbour's effect?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2475-2494, July.
    5. Cem Ertur & Julie Le Gallo & Catherine Baumont, 2006. "The European Regional Convergence Process, 1980-1995: Do Spatial Regimes and Spatial Dependence Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 3-34, January.
    6. Carlos Mendez-Guerra, 2017. "Heterogeneous Growth and Regional (Di)Convergence in Bolivia: A Distribution Dynamics Approach," Economia Coyuntural,Revista de temas de perspectivas y coyuntura, Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales 'Jose Ortiz Mercado' (IIES-JOM), Facultad de Ciencias Economicas, Administrativas y Financieras, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, vol. 2(4), pages 81-108.
    7. Carlos Mendez & Mitsuhiko Kataoka, 2021. "Disparities in regional productivity, capital accumulation, and efficiency across Indonesia: A club convergence approach," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 790-809, May.
    8. Sulekha Hembram & Souparna Maji & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Club Convergence among the Major Indian States During 1982–2014: Does Investment in Human Capital Matter?," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 20(2), pages 184-204, September.
    9. Nicholas Apergis & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2018. "Convergence in Income Inequality: Further Evidence from the Club Clustering Methodology across States in the U.S," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 24(2), pages 147-161, May.
    10. Sulekha Hembram & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Beta, sigma and club convergence: Indian experience from 1980 to 2015," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-366, December.
    11. Cassetta, Ernesto & Nava, Consuelo R. & Zoia, Maria Grazia, 2022. "EU electricity market integration and cross-country convergence in residential and industrial end-user prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    12. Pablo Dario Villalobos Trujillo & Luis Fernando Cabrera Castellanos, 2018. "Job-Searching And Job-Matching Function In The Mexican Labour Market 2009 - 2015," Economia Coyuntural,Revista de temas de perspectivas y coyuntura, Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales 'Jose Ortiz Mercado' (IIES-JOM), Facultad de Ciencias Economicas, Administrativas y Financieras, Universidad Autonoma Gabriel Rene Moreno, vol. 3(1), pages 87-114.
    13. Cristina Brasili & Luciano Gutierrez, 2004. "Regional convergence across European Union," Development and Comp Systems 0402002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Chhavi Tiwari & Sankalpa Bhattacharjee & Debkumar Chakrabarti, 2020. "Investigating Regional Inequalities in India: Are Indian Districts Converging?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 684-716, July.
    15. Haupt, Harry & Schnurbus, Joachim & Semmler, Willi, 2018. "Estimation of grouped, time-varying convergence in economic growth," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 141-158.
    16. Mendez-Guerra, Carlos, 2019. "Environmental Efficiency and Regional Convergence Clusters in Japan: A Nonparametric Density Approach," MPRA Paper 92245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Sakiru Adebola Solarin & Sinan Erdogan & Ugur Korkut Pata, 2023. "Convergence of Income Inequality in OECD Countries Since 1870: A Multi-Method Approach with Structural Changes," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 601-626, April.
    18. Walheer, Barnabé, 2016. "Growth and convergence of the OECD countries: A multi-sector production-frontier approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(2), pages 665-675.
    19. Ferreira Paulo & Dionísio Andreia, 2016. "GDP growth and convergence determinants in the European Union: a crisp-set analysis," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 16(4), pages 279-296, December.
    20. Mendez-Guerra, Carlos & Kataoka, Mitsuhiko, 2020. "Disparities in Regional Productivity, Capital Accumulation, and Efficiency across Indonesia: A Convergence Clubs Approach," MPRA Paper 99322, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:26:y:2022:i:2:p:918-940. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.