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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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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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    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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