Price trends and income inequalities: will Sub-Saharan-Africa reduce the gap?

Caracciolo, Francesco and Santeramo, Fabio Gaetano (2012): Price trends and income inequalities: will Sub-Saharan-Africa reduce the gap? Published in: African Development Review , Vol. 25, No. 1 (17 March 2013): pp. 42-54.

Abstract

During the past decade, commodities prices have risen substantially and the trend is likely to persist as attested by recent OECD-FAO projections. The recent debate has not reached a clear consensus on the effects of this trend on poverty and income inequality in LDCs, thus complicating the policy planning process. Our paper aims at analyzing the likely welfare and income inequality impacts of food price trends in three Sub-Saharan countries, namely Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia. Moreover, we test the statistical significance of changes in income inequalities. Despite Tanzania is not affected, we find that price changes tend to exacerbate the income inequalities in Ethiopia and Ghana, especially for specific groups of households: the policy implications are relevant. Finally, our paper underlines the relevance of statistical inference in analysis on income inequalities, to conclude on welfare and inequalities effects of food price movements.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Sub-Saharan-Africa, Price effects, Welfare, Income Inequality, Generalized Entropy
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O12 - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q1 - Agriculture > Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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