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The World Distribution of Income (Estimated from Individual Country Distributions)

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Author Info
Xavier Sala-i-Martin ()

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Abstract

We estimate the world distribution of income by integrating individual income distributions for 125 countries between 1970 and 1998. We estimate poverty rates and headcounts by integrating the density function below the $1/day and $2/day poverty lines. We find that poverty rates decline substantially over the last twenty years. We compute poverty headcounts and find that the number of one-dollar poor declined by 235 million between 1976 and 1998. The number of $2/day poor declined by 450 million over the same period. We analyze poverty across different regions and countries. Asia is a great success, especially after 1980. Latin America reduced poverty substantially in the 1970s but progress stopped in the 1980s and 1990s. The worst performer was Africa, where poverty rates increased substantially over the last thirty years: the number of $1/day poor in Africa increased by 175 million between 1970 and 1998, and the number of $2/day poor increased by 227. Africa hosted 11% of the world’s poor in 1960. It hosted 66% of them in 1998. We estimate nine indexes of income inequality implied by our world distribution of income. All of them show substantial reductions in global income inequality during the 1980s and 1990s.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers with number 615.

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Date of creation: Jan 2002
Date of revision: May 2002
Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:615

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Related research
Keywords: Income inequality poverty world distribution of income growth

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
F0 - International Economics - - General
I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - General
O00 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - General - - - General

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References listed on IDEAS
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  3. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 37(4), pages 345-61, December.
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  6. D Quah, 1996. "Convergence," CEP Discussion Papers 0290, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Steve Dowrick & Muhammad Akmal, 2005. "CONTRADICTORY TRENDS IN GLOBAL INCOME INEQUALITY: A TALE OF TWO BIASES ," Review of Income and Wealth, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(2), pages 201-229, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Grosh, Margaret E & Nafziger, E Wayne, 1986. "The Computation of World Income Distribution," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 347-59, January.
  15. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 565-91, September.
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Andrew Sharpe, 2004. "Exploring the Linkages between Productivity and Social Development in Market Economies," CSLS Research Reports 2004-02, Centre for the Study of Living Standards. [Downloadable!]
  2. Rodrigo Reis Soares, 2006. "On the determinants of mortality reductions in the developing world," Textos para discussão 529, Department of Economics PUC-Rio (Brazil). [Downloadable!]
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  3. Chaudhuri, Shubham & Ravallion, Martin, 2006. "Partially awakened giants : uneven growth in China and India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4069, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. Mistiaen, Johan A. & Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Survey compliance and the distribution of income," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2956, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  5. Francois, Joseph F. & Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo, 2005. "The construction and interpretation of combined cross-section and time-series inequality datasets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3748, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Kym Anderson, 2004. "Agricultural trade reform and poverty reduction in developing countries," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp014, IIIS. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Sanjay G. Reddy & Camelia Minoiu, 2006. "Chinese Poverty: Assessing the Impact of Alternative Assumptions," Working Papers 25, International Poverty Centre. [Downloadable!]
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  8. E. Santarelli & P. Figini, 2002. "Does Globalization Reduce Poverty? Some Empirical Evidence for the Developing Countries," Working Papers 459, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Università di Bologna. [Downloadable!]
  9. Bourguignon, Francois & Levin, Victoria & Rosenblatt, David, 2006. "Global redistribution of income," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3961, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  10. Boyan Jovanovic, 2004. "The Product Cycle and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 10910, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Gary S. Becker & Tomas J. Philipson & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2005. "The Quantity and Quality of Life and the Evolution of World Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 277-291, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Ann Harrison, 2006. "Globalization and Poverty," NBER Working Papers 12347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Thierry Buchs, 2005. "Privatization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Some Lessons from Experiences to Date," Microeconomics 0502007, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  14. Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "The debate on globalization, poverty, and inequality : why measurement matters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3038, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  15. Korinek, Anton & Mistiaen, Johan A. & Ravallion, Martin, 2005. "Survey nonresponse and the distribution of income," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3543, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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