Income and Land Distribution in Haiti: Some Remarks on Available Statistics

Mats Lundahl

Chapter 6 in Poverty in Haiti, 2011, pp 107-124 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The logical starting point for an investigation on distributional issues in Haiti is James Leyburn’s 1941 classic, The Haitian People,1 which divides the Haitian population into two distinct classes: the elite and the peasant masses. This division cannot be based on any single scale of measurement; several criteria must be employed. According to Leyburn,2 the following are the most important distinctions: the elite do not perform manual labor, are educated, speak French, live in towns, are formally married, practice Roman Catholicism, and are (predominantly but not necessarily) light-skinned. The peasants, on the other hand, are manual workers, illiterate speak nothing but Creole, live in the countryside, practice common-law marriage and voodoo, and are black. More importantly, especially as concerns the focus of the present work, the two groups differ dramatically in economic terms: Since the maintenance of a high standard of living is costly, it is obvious that another source of caste3 distinction lies in the inequalities of wealth and property. Wealth is a relative term, however, and the Haitian peasant is so poor that by contrast a few hundred dollars’ income a year will seem like riches. The elite live economically by American standards, yet even parsimonious spending of many may, when governed by a consciousness of social distinctions, make the peak of aristocracy unassailable.4 Even though Leyburn was exaggerating the extent of the cleavage between Haitian societies by referring to a ‘caste system’5 he was, nevertheless, pointing out a fundamental economic fact: the separation of the rich from the poor. Haiti had a patent problem with income distribution.

Keywords: Income Distribution; National Income; Contemporary Problem; Labor Income; Land Tenure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-30493-2_6

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230304932_6

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