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A number of multidimensional poverty measures that respect the ordinal nature of dimensions have recently been proposed within the counting approach framework. Besides ensuring a reduction in poverty, however, it is important to monitor distributional changes to ensure that poverty reduction has been inclusive in reaching the poorest. Distributional issues are typically captured by adjusting a poverty measure to be sensitive to inequality among the poor. This approach, however, has certain practical and conceptual limitations. It conflicts, for example, with some policy-relevant measurement features, such as the ability to decompose a measure into dimensions post-identification and does not create an appropriate framework for assessing disparity in poverty across population subgroups. In this chapter, we propose and justify the use of a separate decomposable inequality measure – a positive multiple of “variance” – to capture the distribution of deprivations among the poor and to assess disparity in poverty across population subgroups. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach through two contrasting inter-temporal illustrations using Demographic Health Survey data sets for Haiti and India.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between tourism, economic growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in the five countries of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua).

The study represents the first application of panel data modeling of poverty, economic growth and inequality as related to Central America. Unbalanced panel data are employed for the five Central America countries for the period 1980-2012.

The findings reveal three results: the relationship between poverty, inequality and economic growth varies relatively very little for different measures of economic growth; the null hypothesis that economic growth and inequality does not matter is rejected at the 1 percent level, and the coefficients are highly significant and with the expected signs; tourism matters for poverty reduction in Central America.

The paper represents the first application of panel data modeling poverty, economic growth, inequality, and tourism development in the context of Central America. Additionally, the study puts together the largest number of comparable observations on poverty, income, and income distribution for Central America during the period 1980-2012.

The purpose of this paper is to aim at taking a closer look at the decline in the inequality of the distribution of four health variables, infant and child mortality, child stunting and underweight, that took place in various Southeast Asian countries during the past 25 years. More specifically its goal is to check the extent to which this decline in health inequality, as well as the overall reduction in infant and child mortality, in child stunting and underweight, affected the poorest wealth quintile of the population of these countries.

In the first part of the paper the author presents a systematic comparison of the values taken by various consistent measures of the inequality of health attainments and shortfalls for several countries in Southeast Asia and for four health indicators: infant mortality, child mortality, child stunting and underweight. The second part of the paper uses the concept of Shapley decomposition to determine the respective impacts of the decrease in the average value of these health variables and in the inequality of their distribution on the reduction observed for each of these variables in the lowest wealth quintile.

During the period examined there was an important decline infant and child mortality as well as in child stunting and underweight in all countries of Southeast Asia for which data were available. As far as the poorest wealth quintile is concerned this decline was mostly the consequence of the overall decline in these health variables rather than to the reduction of the inequality of their distribution.

Data were available for only four health variables and for many countries data were available for only one period.

A decline in health inequality should be considered as an important aspect of poverty reduction.

Development should not be limited to its economic components. A broader view of development is indispensable.

This study is probably one of the first ones to provide the reader with data on the reduction in health inequality in Southeast Asia as well as on the impact of this decline on the poorest wealth quintile.

Based on government data from 1993 to 2008, this chapter aims to compute and analyze the trends of inequity in interprovincial and regional per-student spending in China's compulsory education, and to ascertain the potential impact of changes in education financing policies. Appropriate inequity measures (Gini and Theil index and Gini decomposition, among others) are employed to provide a systematic picture of the trends. Main findings include: (1) all inequity measures show large and overall increased disparities among provinces and among regions, between 1993 and 2008. (2) However, a slight drop of spending inequity is observed at the primary education level around 2002 and a larger reduction in 2005 and on. There are more turning points in the trend of lower-secondary per-student spending among provinces. These patterns are consistent across different inequity measures and spending indicators (per-student total spending, per-student recurrent spending, and per-student nonpersonnel spending). (3) The trend toward more balanced resource allocation around 2002 and 2005 could be the impact from the Reform of Tax and Administrative Charges and the New Mechanism for Financing Rural Compulsory Education. An increased share of budgetary expenditure in determining total spending suggests that equalizing financing policies have the potential to induce a significant reduction in spending inequity. These findings may help policy makers to better understand and alter the extent of spending inequity in compulsory education. This is an original empirical study that systematically derives the spending inequity trends over a long period in China's compulsory education.

The first objective of this article is to analyse the reasons to pursue inclusive growth, that is economic growth accompanied by a reduction of social inequalities in different dimensions. The second objective of the article is to develop a systematised framework to understand the different channels and enablers by which heritage can contribute to inclusive growth through a review of specialised literature.

The methodology of this article is based on an exhaustive review of existing literature around models of economic development and their ability to decrease social inequalities. It critically reviews theoretical and empirical studies on existing economic approaches and links them with the heritage policy field.

The article finds that countries should pursue inclusive development since it is a fundamental condition for social cohesion, trust and society's overall well-being and because it enables economic growth to be sustainable through time. It also identifies four channels through which heritage can contribute to inclusive development: in its public good dimension, in its capacity to equalise opportunities, in its ability to reduce social, educational and health disparities and in its capacity to decrease spatial income inequalities through regeneration processes.

The framework, that is developed to categorise the different channels and enablers through which heritage could contribute to inclusive growth, is not empirically tested. Further research could approach this by estimating a difference in difference model. However, data limitations could limit this objective in the short-term.

Its originality relies in the development of a conceptual framework that is aimed at shaping heritage policies that target, at the same time, the reduction of inequalities and economic growth.

This article aims to measure inequality of income and opportunities at the national and state levels in Brazil, highlighting their acceptable and unacceptable components.

To this end, a lower-bound estimate of income inequality (MLD) and inequality of opportunity (IOp) was developed using data from the National Household Sample Survey between 2001 and 2014.

It shows that the disparity of income measured by the MLD decreased 26.7 percent, while IOp measured by the IOp decreased 25.6 percent during that period. The decline in total inequality can be attributed to a 48.5 percent decrease of its unfair component and 51.5 percent decrease of its fair component. The average income of the most disadvantaged group (non-white women working in the informal sector) is shown to be only 29.5 percent of the income of the most advantaged group (formally employed white men). The groups at the greatest disadvantage were most benefited by the increase in income.

Beyond comparisons among countries, analysis at the subnational level make it possible to identify how the process that generates inequality acts in each state, revealing patterns undetected in the aggregate analysis. Its decomposition generates two products that are useful to policy-makers. The first is a base estimate of the degree of IOp present in society, which may be expressed as an indicator of the degree of IOp. The second examines the portion of total inequality attributable to IOp.

Though Indian economy since 1980s has expanded very rapidly, yet the benefits of growth remain very unequally distributed. The purpose of this paper is to provide new evidence about the shape, intensity and decomposition of inequality change between 2005 and 2012. The authors find that Gini, as a measure of income inequality, has increased irrespective of geographic regions.

Based on a recent distribution analysis tool, “ABG,” the paper focuses on local inequality, and summarizes the shape of inequality in terms of three inequality parameters (α, β and γ) to examine how the income distributions have changed over time. Here, the central coefficient (α) measures inequality at the median level, with adjustment parameters at the top (β) and bottom (γ).

The results reveal that at the middle of distribution (α), there is almost the same inequality in both the periods, but the coefficients on the curvature parameters β and γ show that there is increasing inequality in the subsequent period. Finally, an analysis of decomposition of inequality change suggests that though income growth was progressive, however, this equalizing effect was more than offset by the disequalizing effect of income reranking.

This paper shows how it can be possible both for “the poor” to fare badly relatively to “the rich” and for income growth to be pro-poor.

This paper stresses the significance of inequality reduction.

Inequality reduction is very much imperative in ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

Perhaps, this research work is first of its kind to examine the shape and decomposition of change in income inequality in India in recent years.

We investigate the reasons why income inequality is so high in Spain in the EU context. We first show that the differential in inequality with Germany and other countries is driven by inequality among households who participate in the labor market. Then, we conduct an analysis of different household income aggregates. We also decompose the inter-country gap in inequality into characteristics and coefficients effects using regressions of the Recentered Influence Function for the Gini index. Our results show that the higher inequality observed in Spain is largely associated with lower employment rates, higher incidence of self-employment, lower attained education, as well as the recent increase in the immigration of economically active households. However, the prevalence of extended families in Spain contributes to reducing inequality by diversifying income sources, with retirement pensions playing an important role. Finally, by comparing the situations in 2008 and 2012, we separate the direct effects of the Great Recession on employment and unemployment benefits, from other more permanent factors (such as the weak redistributive effect of taxes and family or housing allowances, or the roles of education and the extended family).

This chapter examines the impact of education on income inequality in 18 Latin American countries between 2000 and 2010. This period has raised interest in the academic community because inequality has fallen across the region, after several years of consistent high levels. Employing the novel technique proposed by Firpo, Fortin, and Lemieux (2007), the author’s research provides a detailed decomposition of inequality. Three main findings emerge from the author’s results: First, the expansion of education increases inequality in six countries but reduces inequality in four countries. Second, the changes in returns to education are the driving component of the effects of education on inequality. Those countries where education contributes to a fall in inequality are those where the returns to education fell at the top of the income distribution. Third, the rise in the average years of education, considered alone, had an inequality-increasing effect in most of the countries under analysis.

This study is aimed at better understanding the evolution of inequality in carbon emission in intraincome and interincome groups in the world, and then to uncover the driving factors that affect inequality in carbon emission.

The approach is developed by combining the Theil index and the decomposition technique. Specifically, the Theil index is used to measure the inequality in carbon emissions from the perspective of global and each income group level. The extended logarithmic mean Divisia index was developed to explore the driving factors.

This study finds that the inequality in carbon emissions of intraincome group is getting better, whereas the inequality in carbon emission of interincome group is getting worse. And the difference in global carbon emissions between income groups is the main source of global carbon emission inequality, which is greater than that within each income group. In addition, the high-income group has transferred their carbon emissions to upper-middle income group by importing high-carbon-intensive products to meet the domestic demand, while lower-middle-income group do not fully participate in the international trade.

To alleviate the global carbon inequality, more attention should be paid to the inequality in carbon emission of interincome group, especially the trade between high-income group and upper-middle income group. From the perspective of driving factors, the impact of import and export trade dependence on the per capita carbon emissions of different income groups can almost offset each other, so the trade surplus effect should be the focus of each group.

In order to consider the impact of international trade, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis of global carbon emissions inequality from the perspective of income levels and introduces the import and export dependence effect and the trade surplus effect into the analysis framework of global carbon emission inequality drivers, which has not been any research carried out so far. The results of this paper not only provide policy recommendations for mitigating global carbon emissions but also provide a new research perspective for subsequent inequality research.