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Is inequality in Africa really different ?

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Author Info
Milanovic, Branko

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Abstract

High inequality in Africa is something of a paradox: Africa should be a low-inequality continent according to the Kuznets hypothesis (because African countries are poor and agriculture-based), and also because land (the main asset) is widely shared. The author's hypothesis is that African inequality is politically determined. Yet in the empirical analysis, despite the introduction of several political variables, there is still an inequality-increasing"Africa effect"linked to ethnic fractionalization. The politics, however, may work through ethnic fractionalization, which provides an easy and secure basis for the formation of political groups. Although this is a plausible explanation, it is not fully satisfactory, and the author criticizes it in the concluding section.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3169.

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Date of creation: 01 Nov 2003
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3169

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Related research
Keywords: Services&Transfers to Poor; Earth Sciences&GIS; Economic Theory&Research; Poverty Impact Evaluation; Human Rights; Inequality; Poverty Impact Evaluation; Governance Indicators; Earth Sciences&GIS; Services&Transfers to Poor;

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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. Branko Milanovic, 2002. "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculation Based on Household Surveys Alone," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 51-92, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Branko Milanovic & Mark Gradstein & Yvonne Ying, 2003. "Democracy, Ideology And Income Inequality: An Empirical Analysis," Public Economics 0305002, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  3. Demery, Lionel & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "Macroeconomic Adjustment and Poverty in Africa: An Emerging Picture," World Bank Research Observer, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 39-59, February.
  4. Easterly, William & Levine, Ross, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-50, November.
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  5. Beck, Thorsten & Clarke, George & Groff, Alberto & Keefer, Philip & Walsh, Patrick, 2000. "New tools and new tests in comparative political economy - the database of political institutions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2283, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  6. Steven N. Durlauf, 2002. "On the Empirics of Social Capital," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(483), pages 459-479, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Mauro, Paolo, 1995. "Corruption and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(3), pages 681-712, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Alesina, Alberto & Spolaore, Enrico, 1997. "On the Number and Size of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(4), pages 1027-56, November.
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  9. Alesina, Alberto & Baqir, Reza & Easterly, William, 1999. "Public goods and ethnic divisions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2108, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Ivaschenko, Oleksiy, 2002. "Growth and Inequality: Evidence from Transitional Economies," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  11. Anthony Annett, 2000. "Social Fractionalization, Political Instability, and the Size of Government," IMF Working Papers 00/82, International Monetary Fund.
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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. Sindzingre, Alice, 2005. "Explaining Threshold Effects of Globalization on Poverty: An Institutional Perspective," Working Papers RP2005/53, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  2. Round, Jeffery I., 2007. "Globalization, Growth, Inequality and Poverty in Africa: A Macroeconomic Perspective," Working Papers UNU-WIDER Research Paper , World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER). [Downloadable!]
  3. Pinto Moreira, Emmanuel & Bayraktar, Nihal, 2005. "A macroeconomic framework for quantifying growth and poverty reduction strategies in Niger," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3506, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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