By ignoring intra-household inequality, do we underestimate the extent of poverty?

Philippe De Vreyer and Sylvie Lambert

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Abstract: This paper uses a novel survey to re-examine inequality and poverty levels in Senegal. In order to account for intra-household inequalities, the paper uses consumption data collected at a relatively disaggregated level within households. This data reveal that first, mean consumption is higher than measured by standard consumption surveys; and second, that consumption inequality in this country is also much higher that what is commonly thought, with a Gini index reaching 48. These findings affect global poverty estimates in opposite directions and in this context, nearly compensate for each other. Intra-household consumption inequalities are shown to account for nearly 14% of total inequality in Senegal. These results are robust to the existence of plausible measurement errors. As a result of this intra-household inequality, "invisible poor" exist with 12.6% of the poor individuals living in non-poor households.

Keywords: Inequality; Poverty; Household surveys; Intra-household allocation; Senegal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-hme
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01724194v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Inequality, poverty and the intra-household allocation of consumption in Senegal (2019)
Working Paper: Inequality, poverty and the intra-household allocation of consumption in Senegal (2019)
Working Paper: By ignoring intra-household inequality, do we underestimate the extent of poverty? (2018)
Working Paper: By ignoring intra-household inequality do we underestimate the extent of poverty? (2017)
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