IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jknowl/v13y2022i3d10.1007_s13132-021-00771-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Institutional Quality increase inequalities in Africa?

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa

    (University of Dschang, Cameroon)

  • Jacques Simon Song

    (University of Dschang, Cameroon)

Abstract

This article appreciates the role of Institutional quality in addressing inequalities in Africa. Starting from Piketty’s (2015) holistic analysis of income inequalities and their sources, we have integrated two contemporary forms of inequalities (environmental and housing). We carry out an estimation of a panel data model using the Maximum Likelihood Method (MLM) on a sample of 48 African countries for the period 1996–2016, which yielded two main results. Firstly, governance indices reduce income inequality and have a significant adverse effect on housing and environmental inequalities. Secondly, Longevity of the regime and the Term in power of the political party of the chief executive exacerbate the inequalities in all its forms.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Jacques Simon Song, 2022. "Does Institutional Quality increase inequalities in Africa?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 1896-1927, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:13:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s13132-021-00771-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-021-00771-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-021-00771-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13132-021-00771-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharun W Mukand & Dani Rodrik, 2020. "The Political Economy of Liberal Democracy," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(627), pages 765-792.
    2. Ronald H. Coase, 2008. "The Institutional Structure of Production," Springer Books, in: Claude Ménard & Mary M. Shirley (ed.), Handbook of New Institutional Economics, chapter 2, pages 31-39, Springer.
    3. Mahyudin Ahmad, 2017. "Economic Freedom and Income Inequality: Does Political Regime Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-28, June.
    4. Chih-Wen Mao, 2016. "Growth, income inequality, and capital income taxes: evidence from a seemingly unrelated regression model on panel data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1463-1478.
    5. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1998. "New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 259-287.
    6. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Morrow, James D. & De Mesquita, Bruce Bueno & Siverson, Randolph M. & Smith, Alastair, 2008. "Retesting Selectorate Theory: Separating the Effects of W from Other Elements of Democracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(3), pages 393-400, August.
    8. Boyce, James K. & Zwickl, Klara & Ash, Michael, 2016. "Measuring environmental inequality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 114-123.
    9. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    10. Ahmad, Mahyudin, 2016. "Middle income trap and income inequality: Empirical evidence on the distributional effect of economic liberalization and political regime," MPRA Paper 76437, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Hartmann, Dominik & Guevara, Miguel R. & Jara-Figueroa, Cristian & Aristarán, Manuel & Hidalgo, César A., 2017. "Linking Economic Complexity, Institutions, and Income Inequality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 75-93.
    12. Bourguignon, Francois & Verdier, Thierry, 2000. "Oligarchy, democracy, inequality and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 285-313, August.
    13. Sulemana, Iddisah & Kpienbaareh, Daniel, 2018. "An empirical examination of the relationship between income inequality and corruption in Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 27-42.
    14. Sunde, Uwe & Cervellati, Matteo & Fortunato, Piergiuseppe, 2008. "Are all democracies equally good? The role of interactions between political environment and inequality for rule of law," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 552-556, June.
    15. Aisen, Ari & Veiga, Francisco José, 2013. "How does political instability affect economic growth?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 151-167.
    16. Adalgiso Amendola & Joshy Easaw & Antonio Savoia, 2013. "Inequality in developing economies: the role of institutional development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 43-60, April.
    17. Samuel Adams & Edem Kwame Mensah Klobodu, 2019. "Urbanization, Economic Structure, Political Regime, and Income Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 971-995, April.
    18. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2011. "Political regimes and income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 266-268.
    19. Mark Gradstein & Branko Milanovic, 2004. "Does Libertè = Egalité? A Survey of the Empirical Links between Democracy and Inequality with Some Evidence on the Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 515-537, September.
    20. Abebe Shimeles & Tiguene Nabassaga, 2018. "Why Is Inequality High in Africa?," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 27(1), pages 108-126.
    21. Przeworski,Adam, 2010. "Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521761031, January.
    22. Joseph Stiglitz & Amartya K. Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited: Reflections and Overview," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01069384, HAL.
    23. Angeles, Luis, 2007. "Income inequality and colonialism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1155-1176, July.
    24. Pi, Jiancai & Zhou, Yu, 2013. "Institutional quality and skilled–unskilled wage inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 356-363.
    25. Alberto Chong & Mark Gradstein, 2007. "Inequality and Institutions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 454-465, August.
    26. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5l6uh8ogmqildh09h4687h53k is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1996. "Some Lessons from the East Asian Miracle," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 151-177, August.
    28. Dae Jin Yi, 2013. "Politics and Income Inequality: Does Politics Still Matter in New Democracies," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(5), pages 653-679, October.
    29. Fakir, Adnan M.S. & Ahmad, Azraf Uddin & Hosain, K.M. Masnun & Hossain, Mostafa Rafid & Gani, Ridhim Sadman, 2017. "The comparative effect of corruption and Piketty’s second fundamental law of capitalism on inequality," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 90-105.
    30. Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Jacques Simon Song, 2019. "Urbanisation et inégalités en Afrique : une étude à partir des indices désagrégés," Revue d'économie régionale et urbaine, Armand Colin, vol. 0(3), pages 447-484.
    31. repec:ehu:ikerla:30206 is not listed on IDEAS
    32. Policardo, Laura & Carrera, Edgar J. Sánchez, 2018. "Corruption causes inequality, or is it the other way around? An empirical investigation for a panel of countries," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 92-102.
    33. Christopher Gerry & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2008. "Inequality, democracy and taxation: Lessons from the post-communist transition," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(1), pages 89-111.
    34. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2010. "Is there a trade-off between income inequality and corruption? Evidence from Latin America," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(2), pages 102-104, May.
    35. Luigi Benfratello & Alfredo Del Monte & Luca Pennacchio, 2018. "Corruption and public debt: a cross-country analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 340-344, March.
    36. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 1-41.
    37. Timmons, Jeffrey F., 2010. "Does Democracy Reduce Economic Inequality?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 741-757, October.
    38. Ravi Kanbur & Juzhong Zhuang, 2013. "Urbanization and Inequality in Asia," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 30(1), pages 131-147, March.
    39. Joseph E. Stiglitz & Amartya Sen & Jean-Paul Fitoussi, 2009. "The measurement of economic performance and social progress revisited," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2009-33, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    40. Berisha, Edmond & Meszaros, John & Olson, Eric, 2018. "Income inequality, equities, household debt, and interest rates: Evidence from a century of data," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1-14.
    41. Przeworski,Adam, 2010. "Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521140119, January.
    42. Mandal, Biswajit & Marjit, Sugata, 2010. "Corruption and wage inequality?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 166-172, January.
    43. Lipset, Seymour Martin, 1959. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy1," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(1), pages 69-105, March.
    44. Masahiko Aoki, 2001. "Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011875, December.
    45. John C. Anyanwu, 2014. "Factors Affecting Economic Growth in Africa: Are There any Lessons from China?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 26(3), pages 468-493, September.
    46. Evans, Alice, 2018. "Politicising inequality: The power of ideas," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 360-372.
    47. repec:idb:brikps:39798 is not listed on IDEAS
    48. Pierre Monnin, 2014. "Inflation and Income Inequality in Developed Economies," Working Papers 1401, Council on Economic Policies.
    49. Pia Riggirozzi, 2020. "Social Policy, Inequalities and the Battle of Rights in Latin America," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(2), pages 506-522, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. João Jungo, 2024. "Institutions and economic growth: the role of financial inclusion, public spending on education and the military," Review of Economics and Political Science, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 298-315, April.
    2. Ehsan Namdar Joyami & Nour Mohammad Yaghoubi & Seyed AliGholi Rowshan, 2024. "Quality Management and Environmental Management: Role of Knowledge Transfer and Organizational Innovation in Knowledge-Based Firms," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 8457-8494, June.
    3. Guiling Yue & Ahsan Zubair & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Azeem Abro, 2024. "Institutional Environment and Tourism: Moderating Role of Host Countries’ Health System," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 7358-7374, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sher Khan, 2022. "Investigating the Effect of Income Inequality on Corruption: New Evidence from 23 Emerging Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(3), pages 2100-2126, September.
    2. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2011. "Political regimes and income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 266-268.
    3. Sulemana, Iddisah & Kpienbaareh, Daniel, 2018. "An empirical examination of the relationship between income inequality and corruption in Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 27-42.
    4. Antonio Andres & Carlyn Ramlogan-Dobson, 2011. "Is Corruption Really Bad for Inequality? Evidence from Latin America," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(7), pages 959-976.
    5. Mark Edem Kunawotor & Godfred Alufar Bokpin & Charles Barnor, 2020. "Drivers of income inequality in Africa: Does institutional quality matter?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 718-729, December.
    6. Ichraf Ouechtati, 2023. "Financial Inclusion, Institutional Quality, and Inequality: an Empirical Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 620-644, June.
    7. Lawrence Adu Asamoah & Francesco Figari & Andrea Vezzulli, 2021. "Spillover effects of innovation and entrepreneurial activity on income inequality in developing countries: A spatial panel approach," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 1661-1686, October.
    8. Hartmann, Dominik & Guevara, Miguel R. & Jara-Figueroa, Cristian & Aristarán, Manuel & Hidalgo, César A., 2017. "Linking Economic Complexity, Institutions, and Income Inequality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 75-93.
    9. Matteo Cervellati & Piergiuseppe Fortunato & Uwe Sunde, 2015. "Roots and Fruits of Democracy: Natural Resources, Income Distribution and Social Violence," World Economic Review, World Economics Association, vol. 2015(4), pages 1-27, February.
    10. Samuel Adams & Edem Kwame Mensah Klobodu, 2019. "Urbanization, Economic Structure, Political Regime, and Income Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 971-995, April.
    11. Giuseppe Liddo & Andrea Morone, 2023. "Local income inequality, rent-seeking detection, and equalization: a laboratory experiment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 257-275, September.
    12. Marta Guerriero, 2019. "Democracy and the Labor Share of Income: A Cross-Country Analysis," ADB Institute Series on Development Economics, in: Gary Fields & Saumik Paul (ed.), Labor Income Share in Asia, chapter 0, pages 151-176, Springer.
    13. Cervellati Matteo & Fortunato Piergiuseppe & Sunde Uwe, 2012. "Consensual and Conflictual Democratization," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-51, December.
    14. Lawrence Adu Asamoah, 2021. "Institutional Quality and Income Inequality in Developing Countries: A Dynamic Panel Threshold Analysis," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(2), pages 123-143, April.
    15. Mahyudin Ahmad, 2017. "Economic Freedom and Income Inequality: Does Political Regime Matter?," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-28, June.
    16. Chi-Chuan Lee & Chien-Chiang Lee, 2018. "The Impact of Country Risk on Income Inequality: A Multilevel Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 139-162, February.
    17. Roberto Ezcurra & Izaskun Zuazu, 2022. "Political equality and quality of government," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 269-293, May.
    18. Alvarado, Rafael & Tillaguango, Brayan & López-Sánchez, Michelle & Ponce, Pablo & Işık, Cem, 2021. "Heterogeneous impact of natural resources on income inequality: The role of the shadow economy and human capital index," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 690-704.
    19. Dobson, Stephen & Ramlogan-Dobson, Carlyn, 2012. "Why is Corruption Less Harmful to Income Inequality in Latin America?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(8), pages 1534-1545.
    20. Perera, Liyanage Devangi H. & Lee, Grace H.Y., 2013. "Have economic growth and institutional quality contributed to poverty and inequality reduction in Asia?," MPRA Paper 52763, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:13:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s13132-021-00771-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.