 How polarized is sub-Saharan Africa? A look at the regional distribution of consumption expenditure in the 2000sFabio Clementi, Michele Fabiani and Vasco Molini () Oxford Economic Papers, 2021, vol. 73, issue 2, 796-819 Abstract: The resurgence of economic growth over the last two decades in sub-Saharan Africa has recently come under scrutiny by scholars, the main criticism being the lack of inclusiveness. While studies on inequality in sub-Saharan Africa are becoming numerous, less attention has been devoted so far to the growing polarization the region is undergoing. Polarization, as distinct from inequality, refers to the tendency of shifting away from the centre of a distribution to its tails, creating a hollowed-out middle. This paper, using a set of sub-Saharan African national household surveys, provides a first estimate of the regional expenditures’ polarization. This latter steadily increased throughout the 2000s and its growth was mainly driven by increasing polarization between countries, meaning sub-Saharan Africa tended to polarize spatially, with the Southern cone countries and some Western African countries performing above the average, and the rest of the region lagging behind. JEL-codes: C14 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:73:y:2021:i:2:p:796-819. Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
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