COVID-19 and Global Income Inequality

Angus Deaton

No 28392, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: There is a widespread belief that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased global income inequality, reducing per capita incomes by more in poor countries than in rich. This supposition is reasonable but false. Rich countries have experienced more deaths per head than have poor countries; their better health systems, higher incomes, more capable governments and better preparedness notwithstanding. The US did worse than some rich countries, but better than several others. Countries with more deaths saw larger declines in income. There was thus not only no trade-off between lives and income; fewer deaths meant more income. As a result, per capita incomes fell by more in higher-income countries. Country by country, international income inequality decreased. When countries are weighted by population, international income inequality increased, more in line with the original intuition. This was largely because Indian incomes fell, and because the disequalizing effect of declining Indian incomes was not offset by rising incomes in China, which is no longer a globally poor country. That these findings are a result of the pandemic is supported by comparing global inequality using IMF forecasts in October 2019 and October 2020.

JEL-codes: F01 I14 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-hea, nep-opm and nep-tra
Note: DEV EFG EH IFM
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Published as Angus Deaton, 2021. "COVID-19 and Global Income Inequality," LSE Public Policy Review, vol 1(4).

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