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Inequality and Poverty in Africa: Comparing Panels of Income Distributions from Different Data Sources

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Abstract

A panel of income distributions for 28 African countries for the period 1997-2010 is developed. For each country/year, generalised method of moments estimates of mixtures of lognormal distributions are estimated from income share data and four different sources of mean incomes – PWT7.1, PWT8.0, PWT9.0 and UQICD. Methods for interpolating or extrapolating shares are proposed for country/years where share data are not available. The estimated income distributions are used to compute measures of inequality and poverty for each country/year and for the combined 28 countries. All estimates are provided in a supplementary appendix for use by future researchers. Using the results for six example countries and Africa as a whole, we demonstrate how critical choice of mean incomes can be for poverty measurement.

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  • Duangkamon Chotikapanich & William E. Griffiths & Gholamreza Hajargasht & D. S. Prasada Rao & Charley Xia, 2018. "Inequality and Poverty in Africa: Comparing Panels of Income Distributions from Different Data Sources," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 2042, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:2042
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nicoletta Berardi & Federica Marzo, 2017. "The Elasticity of Poverty with respect to Sectoral Growth in Africa," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 147-168, March.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    lognormal mixtures; generalised method of moments; interpolation; extrapolation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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