Declining Inequality in Latin America: Some Economics, Some Politics

Abstract

The authors thank without implicating Jorge Mariscal for help with data, Amanda Glassman for excellent comments, and Pronita Saxena for excellent research assistance. ! ! 4 According to the Inter-American Development Bank (1999), the Gini for 90 percent of the population in Latin America would be, on average, only 0.36 instead of 0.52, and in six countries income inequality would be less than that of the United States. The Gini coefficient takes values between zero (no inequality at all) and one (maximum inequality). Measured at the country level, Ginis tend to be between .25 (Sweden) and .60 (Brazil and South Africa). The Gini coefficient in the United States was about 0.34 in 1996. 5 Household data on wealth are rare for countries in Latin America and other developing countries. The distribution of wealth is everywhere more unequal than the distribution of income (Davies et al., 2006). 6 Recent here refers to the 1980s and 1990s, depending on the country. 7 On effects of macroeconomic policies on the poor via crises, see Lustig (2000).

Vertical and Horizontal Inequality in Ecuador: The Lack of Sustainability

“…This is relevant for our analysis because the reduction in inequality during this period coincides with the previous commodities boom, and the start of oil extraction in Ecuador. 2 This dynamic is consistent with the experience of other countries in Latin America during these years (with the exception of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) in which inequality also declined (Birdsall et al, 2011;Gasparini and Lustig, 2011).…”

“…Some authors, looking at survey-based data, argue that the current reduction in inequality in Latin America constitutes a break with the region's history (Birdsall et al, 2011;Cornia, 2014;Lustig and Lopez-Calva, 2010;ECLAC, 2015). As shown above for the case of Ecuador, the fall in inequality -while remarkable -is consistent with the notion of a break with history only if we look back as far as the 1980s, which is the period for which there is consistent survey-based data.…”

Sustainable development or sacrifice zone? Politics below the surface in post-neoliberal Ecuador

“…The coincidence of increased social investments noted by so many other analysts (e.g. Guardiola and García-Quero, 2014;Birdsall et al, 2011;Grugel and Riggirozzi, 2012;Montecino, 2011;Cornia, 2014) with increased extractive rents is examined in detail through analysis of Central Bank data by Davalos (2013) and Davalos and Albuja (2014). According to Davalos (2013), the majority of gains in public spending have been in infrastructure such as hydro-electric projects and highways, which are primarily funded by bilateral agreements with China and Brazil and are strategically positioned to facilitate new resource extraction projects.…”

Measuring socio-economic inequality: From dwellers’ perspective within Bangalore urban agglomeration

“…The two aspects (quantitative and qualitative) of socio-economic inequality within urban agglomeration differ from standpoint of a developed and a developing economy (Birdsall et al, 2011;Kundu, 1992;Sivaramakrishnan et al, 2005). In case of a developing country urban geographers, physical planners and social policy makers are more interested to focus on distribution of settlements and extended metropolitan forms of East Asia, instead of a single and compact urban form (Burges & Jenks, 2000;Dick & Rimmer, 1998;Wall Street Journal Report, 2005).…”