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

This paper uses a novel survey to re-examine inequality and poverty levels in Senegal. In order to account for intra-household inequalities, it uses consumption data collected at a relatively disaggregated level within households. This data reveal that 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 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.