| Type | Working Paper - World Bank Policy Research Working Paper |
| Title | True world income distribution, 1988 and 1993: First calculations, based on household surveys alone |
| Author(s) | |
| Issue | 2244 |
| Publication (Day/Month/Year) | 1999 |
| URL | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1999/12/30/000094946_99121105392984/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf |
| Abstract | The paper derives world income or expenditure distribution of individuals for two years 1988 and 1993. It is the first paper to calculate world distribution for individuals based entirely on household survey data from 91 countries, and adjusted for differences in purchasing power parity between the countries. Measured by the Gini index, inequality increased from an already very high 63 in 1988 to 66 in 1993. The increase was driven more by rising differences in mean incomes between the countries than by rising inequalities within countries. The most important contributors were: rising urban-rural differences in China, and slow growth of rural purchasingpower adjusted incomes in South Asia compared to several large developed market economies. |