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Spatial Comparisons of Poverty and Inequality in Living Standards in Malawi

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  • Richard Mussa

Abstract

The paper looks at poverty and inequality across areas in Malawi. The focus is on both monetary (consumption) and non monetary (health and education) dimensions of well being. Stochastic poverty dominance tests show that rural areas are poorer in the three dimensions regardless of poverty line chosen. Stochastic inequality dominance tests find that the north and south dominate the centre in health inequality, and there is no dominance between the north and south. With respect to education inequality, dominance is declared for the south-centre pair only. A sub group decomposition analysis finds that the south contributes the most to consumption and education poverty while the centre is the largest contributor to health poverty. We establish that within area inequalities (vertical inequalities) rather than between area inequalities (horizontal inequalities) are the major driver of consumption, health, and education inequality in Malawi.
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  • Richard Mussa, 2013. "Spatial Comparisons of Poverty and Inequality in Living Standards in Malawi," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 81(2), pages 192-210, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:sajeco:v:81:y:2013:i:2:p:192-210
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    Cited by:

    1. Mussa, Richard, 2010. "Poverty and Inequality in Standards of Living in Malawi: Does Religious Affiliation Matter?," MPRA Paper 24438, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Sara Mota Cardoso & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2020. "The Focus on Poverty in the Most Influential Journals in Economics: A Bibliometric Analysis of the “Blue Ribbon” Journals," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 10-42, March.
    3. Mussa, Richard, 2011. "The poverty-inequality relationship in Malawi: A multidimensional perspective," MPRA Paper 31413, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Anderson Sawira Gondwe, 2015. "Asset index, child nutritional status and pro-poor growth analysis in Malawi," Working Papers 20/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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    JEL classification:

    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General

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