IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1015.html

Decomposing Welfare Inequality in Egypt and Tunisia: an Oaxaca-Blinder Based Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Yosr Abid

    (Technical and Practical Assistance to Development, Tunisia)

  • Cathal O'Donoghue
  • Denisa Sologon

Abstract

In order to understand the main drivers of welfare inequality in Egypt and Tunisia, the present paper presents an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach used to decompose differences across distributions of household expenditures, based on counterfactual distributions in the two countries of analysis. Taking Tunisia as a reference country, we find that changes in the expenditures structure and demographics are inequality decreasing. Changes in the characteristics of the labor market has, however, no, or very limited, impact on inequality as captured by the Gini Index.

Suggested Citation

  • Yosr Abid & Cathal O'Donoghue & Denisa Sologon, 2016. "Decomposing Welfare Inequality in Egypt and Tunisia: an Oaxaca-Blinder Based Approach," Working Papers 1015, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1015.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/1XrgIaK
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Paolo Verme & Sherine Al-Shawarby & Branko Milanovic & Sahar El Tawila & May Gadallah & Enas Ali A. El-Majeed, 2014. "Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt : Facts and Perceptions across People, Time, and Space," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 17583, April.
    3. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    4. Katz, Lawrence F. & Autor, David H., 1999. "Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1463-1555, Elsevier.
    5. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    6. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    7. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    8. Sami Bibi & AbdelRahmen El-Lahga, 2010. "Decomposing Income Inequality in The Arab Region," Working Papers 557, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 Jan 2010.
    9. Vladimir Hlasny & Paolo Verme, 2018. "Top Incomes and the Measurement of Inequality in Egypt," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(2), pages 428-455.
    10. Bourguignon, Francois, 1979. "Decomposable Income Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 901-920, July.
    11. DiNardo, John & Fortin, Nicole M & Lemieux, Thomas, 1996. "Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages, 1973-1992: A Semiparametric Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1001-1044, September.
    12. Eberhard Kienle, 2015. "Changed Regimes, Changed Priorities? Economic and Social Policies after the 2011 Elections in Tunisia and Egypt," Working Papers 928, Economic Research Forum, revised Jul 2015.
    13. Juhn, Chinhui & Murphy, Kevin M & Pierce, Brooks, 1993. "Wage Inequality and the Rise in Returns to Skill," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(3), pages 410-442, June.
    14. David Card & John E. DiNardo, 2002. "Skill-Biased Technological Change and Rising Wage Inequality: Some Problems and Puzzles," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(4), pages 733-783, October.
    15. Richard B. Freeman, 1994. "Working Under Different Rules," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free94-1, September.
    16. Alesina, Alberto & Glaeser, Edward, 2005. "Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199286102.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christophe Muller, 2018. "Optimal Cash Transfers with Distribution Regressions: An Application to Egypt at the Dawn of the XXIst Century," AMSE Working Papers 1802, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    2. Christophe Muller, 2016. "Optimal transfers with distribution regressions: An application to Egypt at the dawn of the XXIst century," WIDER Working Paper Series 179, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Christophe Muller, 2016. "Optimal transfers with distribution regressions: An application to Egypt at the dawn of the XXIst century," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-179, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Racha Ramadan & Vladimir Hlasny & Vito Intini, 2018. "Inter‐Group Expenditure Gaps In The Arab Region And Their Determinants: Application To Egypt, Jordan, Palestine And Tunisia," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(s1), pages 145-188, October.

    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. Yosr Abid & Cathal O'Donoghue & Denisa Sologon, 2016. "Exploring the Determinants of Welfare Distribution in Tunisia and Egypt Using a Welfare Generation Model," Working Papers 1009, Economic Research Forum, revised Jun 2016.
    2. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    3. Rosalia Castellano & Gaetano Musella & Gennaro Punzo, 2017. "Structure of the labour market and wage inequality: evidence from European countries," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 2191-2218, September.
    4. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Firpo, Sergio & Messina, Julián, 2017. "Ageing Poorly? Accounting for the Decline in Earnings Inequality in Brazil, 1995-2012," IZA Discussion Papers 10656, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    5. Koomen, Miriam & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2022. "Occupational tasks and wage inequality in West Germany: A decomposition analysis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Vladimir Hlasny, 2017. "Different Faces of Inequality across Asia: Decomposition of Income Gaps across Demographic Groups," LIS Working papers 691, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Guanghua Wan & Zhangyue Zhou, 2005. "Income Inequality in Rural China: Regression‐based Decomposition Using Household Data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 107-120, February.
    8. Stephen P. Jenkins & John Micklewright, 2007. "New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 700, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Salverda, Wiemer & Checchi, Daniele, 2014. "Labour-Market Institutions and the Dispersion of Wage Earnings," IZA Discussion Papers 8220, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Baumgarten, Daniel, 2013. "Exporters and the rise in wage inequality: Evidence from German linked employer–employee data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 201-217.
    11. Töpfer, Marina, 2017. "Detailed RIF decomposition with selection: The gender pay gap in Italy," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 26-2017, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    12. Grégory Verdugo & Henry Fraisse & Guillaume Horny, 2012. "Changes In Wage Inequality In France: The Impact Of Composition Effects (in French)," Working papers 370, Banque de France.
    13. Luis Ayala & Javier Martín‐Román & Juan Vicente, 2024. "What contributes to rising inequality in large cities?," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(5), pages 1760-1810, November.
    14. Xuejun Liu & Albert Park & Yaohui Zhao, 2010. "Explaining Rising Returns to Education in Urban China in the 1990s," Trade Working Papers 22720, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    15. Anna Lukiyanova, 2013. "Earnings inequality and informal Employment in Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 37/EC/2013, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    16. Zhu, Rong, 2016. "Wage differentials between urban residents and rural migrants in urban China during 2002–2007: A distributional analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 2-14.
    17. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    18. Domenico Depalo & Raffaela Giordano & Evangelia Papapetrou, 2015. "Public–private wage differentials in euro-area countries: evidence from quantile decomposition analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1015, November.
    19. Rosalia Castellano & Gaetano Musella & Gennaro Punzo, 2019. "Exploring changes in the employment structure and wage inequality in Western Europe using the unconditional quantile regression," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 249-304, May.
    20. Michel Lubrano & Abdoul Aziz Junior Ndoye, 2014. "Bayesian Unconditional Quantile Regression: An Analysis of Recent Expansions in Wage Structure and Earnings Inequality in the US 1992–2009," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 61(2), pages 129-153, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:erg:wpaper:1015. 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: Namees Nabeel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    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.