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Growth, Income Distribution, and Well-Being: Comparisons across Space and Time

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  • Carola Grün
  • Stephan Klasen

Abstract

We use several well-being measures that combine average income with a measure of inequality to undertake international, intertemporal, and global comparisons of well-being. The conclusions emerging from the analysis are that our well-being measures drastically change our impression of levels of well-being at the national and, more so, at the global level. They also significantly affect the ranking of countries, when compared to rankings based on real incomes. The impact on these measures on temporal trends in well-being is smaller on average, but significant for a number of countries where inequality changed considerably in past decades. These results appear not very sensitive to the data on inequality which this analysis is based upon. However, since the inclusion of inequality has an important impact on wellbeing comparisons and it is of great importance to generate more consistent and intertemporally as well as internationally comparable data on inequality that are necessary for such comparisons.

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Paper provided by CESifo Group Munich in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number 837.

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Date of creation: 2003
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_837

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  1. Rodrik, Dani & Alesina, Alberto, 1994. "Distributive Politics and Economic Growth," Scholarly Articles 4551798, Harvard University Department of Economics.
  2. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
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  9. Blackorby, Charles & Donaldson, David, 1978. "Measures of relative equality and their meaning in terms of social welfare," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 59-80, June.
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  11. Clarke, George R. G., 1992. "More evidence on income distribution and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1064, The World Bank.
  12. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1998. "New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 259-287.
  13. Rosa Martínez & Luis Ayala & Jes�s Ruiz-Huerta, 2001. "The impact of unemployment on inequality and poverty in OECD countries," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 9(2), pages 417-447, July.
  14. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1997. "Trends in Real Income in Britain: A Microeconomic Analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 483-500.
  15. Srinivasan, T N, 1994. "Human Development: A New Paradigm or Reinvention of the Wheel?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 238-43, May.
  16. Hill, Robert J., 2000. "Measuring substitution bias in international comparisons based on additive purchasing power parity methods," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 145-162, January.
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