IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/dls/wpaper/0038.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Polarisation in Latin America and the Caribbean: What do Household Surveys Tell Us?

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo Gasparini

    (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - FCE - UNLP)

  • Matías Horenstein

    (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - FCE - UNLP)

  • Sergio Olivieri

    (Centro de Estudios Distributivos, Laborales y Sociales (CEDLAS) - FCE - UNLP)

Abstract

This document presents and discusses an extensive set of statistics aimed at characterizing the degree of economic polarisation in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. The study is based on a dataset of household surveys from 21 LAC countries in the period 1989-2004. Latin America is characterised by a high level of economic polarisation, compared to other regions in the world. On average, income polarisation has mildly increased in the region since the early 1990s. The country experiences in terms of income polarisation, however, have been heterogeneous. The region has moved forward toward the reduction of educational inequalities, while the gaps between the rich and the poor in terms of access to basic services (water and electricity) have been reduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo Gasparini & Matías Horenstein & Sergio Olivieri, 2006. "Economic Polarisation in Latin America and the Caribbean: What do Household Surveys Tell Us?," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0038, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    • Handle: RePEc:dls:wpaper:0038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cedlas.econo.unlp.edu.ar/archivos_upload/doc_cedlas38.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miguel Székely & Marianne Hilgert, 1999. "What's Behind the Inequality we Measure: An Investigation Using Latin American Data," Research Department Publications 4188, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    2. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Jean-Yves Duclos & Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2004. "Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(6), pages 1737-1772, November.
    4. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_poverty_mdg.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Alberto Alesina & Enrico Spolaore, 1997. "On the Number and Size of Nations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1027-1056.
    6. Angus Deaton, 2005. "Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Angus Deaton, 2003. "How to Monitor Poverty for the Millennium Development Goals," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 353-378.
    8. Marianne Hilgert & Miguel Székely, 1999. "Whats Behind the Inequality We Measure? An Investigation Using Latin American Data," LIS Working papers 234, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Lykke Andersen, 2001. "Social Mobility in Latin America: Links with Adolescent Schooling," Research Department Publications 3130, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    10. Birdsall, N. & Graham, C. & Pettinato, S., 2000. "Stuck in the Tunnel: Is Globalization Muddling the Middle Class?," Papers 14, Brookings Institution - Working Papers.
    11. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1994. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 819-851, July.
    12. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2004. "Greed and grievance in civil war," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 56(4), pages 563-595, October.
    13. Angus Deaton, 2005. "ERRATUM: Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 395-395, May.
    14. Torsten Persson & Guido Tabellini, 2005. "The Economic Effects of Constitutions," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262661926, December.
    15. Matías Horenstein & Sergio Olivieri, 2004. "Income Polarization in Argentina: Pure Income Polarization, Theory and Applications," Económica, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 0(1-2), pages 39-66, January-D.
    16. Deininger, Klaus & Olinto, Pedro, 2000. "Asset distribution, inequality, and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2375, The World Bank.
    17. Sen, Amartya, 2000. "Social justice and the distribution of income," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 59-85, Elsevier.
    18. Sanchez-Paramo, Carolina & Schady, Norbert, 2003. "Off and running? Technology, trade and the rising demand for skilled workers in Latin America," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3015, The World Bank.
    19. Woden, Q.T. & Ayres, W. & Barenstein, M. & Hicks, N. & Lee, K. & Maloney, W. & Peeters, P. & Siaens, C. & Yitzjaki, S., 2000. "Poverty and Policy in Latin America and Caribeean," Papers 467, World Bank - Technical Papers.
    20. Matías Busso & Martín Cicowiez & Leonardo Gasparini, 2005. "Ethnicity and the Millennium Development Goals in Latin America and the Caribbean," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0027, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    21. Jere R. Behrman & Nancy Birdsall & Miguel Székely, 2003. "Economic Policy and Wage Differentials in Latin America," Working Papers 29, Center for Global Development.
    22. Georgina Pizzolitto, 2005. "Poverty and Inequality in Chile: Methodological Issues and a Literature Review," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0020, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    23. Morley, Samuel A., 2000. "La distribución de ingreso en América Latina y el Caribe," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1657 edited by Cepal.
    24. Deaton, A. & Zaidi, S., 1999. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," Papers 192, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Development Studies.
    25. Leonardo Gasparini & Ezequiel Molina, 2006. "Income Distribution, Institutions and Conflicts: An Exploratory Analysis for Latin America and the Caribbean," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0041, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    26. Angus Deaton & Salman Zaidi, 2002. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 14101, April.
    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. Jérôme Lefranc, 2012. "Polarisation et déclin de la classe moyenne : le cas de la Russie," Post-Print halshs-00775929, HAL.
    2. Carter, Michael & Morrow, John, 2012. "Left, right, left: income dynamics and the evolving political preferences of forward-looking Bayesian voters," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 58159, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. C�line Bonnefond & Matthieu Cl�ment, 2012. "An analysis of income polarisation in rural and urban China," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 15-37, June.
    4. World Bank, 2008. "Uruguay : Poverty and Social Impact Assessment of the Tax Reform," World Bank Publications - Reports 7890, The World Bank Group.
    5. Jérôme Lefranc, 2012. "Polarisation et déclin de la classe moyenne : le cas de la Russie," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 12054, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    6. Esteban Cabrera Cevallos & Edwin Buenaño, 2018. "¿Ha crecido la clase media en el Ecuador? Un análisis mediante índices de polarización del ingreso para el periodo 2007-2014," Revista de Economía del Rosario, Universidad del Rosario, vol. 21(1), pages 121-152, June.
    7. Ricardo Bebczuk, 2009. "SME Access to Credit in Guatemala and Nicaragua: Challenging Conventional Wisdom with New Evidence," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0080, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    8. Modrego, F. & Celis, X. & Berdegué, J., 2008. "Polarización étnica de los ingresos rurales en el sur de Chile," Working papers 015, Rimisp Latin American Center for Rural Development.
    9. Leonardo Gasparini & Matias Horenstein & Ezequiel Molina & Sergio Olivieri, 2008. "Income Polarization in Latin America: Patterns and Links with Institutions and Conflict," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(4), pages 461-484.
    10. Leonardo Gasparini & Ezequiel Molina, 2006. "Income Distribution, Institutions and Conflicts: An Exploratory Analysis for Latin America and the Caribbean," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0041, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    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. Leonardo Gasparini & Federico Gutiérrez & Leopoldo Tornarolli, 2007. "Growth And Income Poverty In Latin America And The Caribbean: Evidence From Household Surveys," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 53(2), pages 209-245, June.
    2. Viollaz, Mariana & Olivieri, Sergio & Alejo, Javier, 2009. "Labor income polarization in greater Buenos Aires," MPRA Paper 42944, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Leonardo Gasparini, 2003. "Argentina's Distributional Failure: The Role of Integration and Public Policy," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 42798, Inter-American Development Bank.
    4. Leonardo Gasparini, 2003. "Argentina´s Distributional Failure: The role of Integration and Public Policies," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0001, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    5. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2005. "A Comparison of Polarization Measures," Working Papers 310, Barcelona School of Economics.
    6. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    7. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    8. Héctor Galindo Silva, 2007. "Polarización económica y emergencia de confilctos violentos internos un estudio empírico," Documentos de Economía 4449, Universidad Javeriana - Bogotá.
    9. Gasparini, Leonardo, 2003. "Argentina's Distributional Failure: The Role of Integration and Public Policy," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3337, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Iñaki Permanyer, 2008. "The Measurement of Social Polarization in a Multi-group Context," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 736.08, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    11. Pinelopi K. Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2004. "Trade, Inequality, and Poverty: What Do We Know? Evidence from Recent Trade Liberalization Episodes in Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 10593, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Hernán Winkler, 2005. "Monitoring the Socio-Economic Conditions in Uruguay," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0026, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    13. Grimm, Michael & Harttgen, Kenneth & Klasen, Stephan & Misselhorn, Mark, 2008. "A Human Development Index by Income Groups," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2527-2546, December.
    14. Paula Giovagnoli & Georgina Pizzolitto & Julieta Trías, 2005. "Monitoring the Socio-Economic Conditions in Chile," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0019, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    15. Shaohua Chen & Martin Ravallion, 2010. "The Developing World is Poorer than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1577-1625.
    16. Huremović, Kenan & Ozkes, Ali I., 2022. "Polarization in networks: Identification–alienation framework," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Leonardo Gasparini, 2005. "Income Inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean: Evidence from Household Surveys," Económica, Departamento de Economía, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 0(1-2), pages 29-57, January-D.
    18. Iñaki Permanyer, 2008. "Social Polarization: Introducing distances between and within groups," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 751.08, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    19. Beegle, Kathleen & De Weerdt, Joachim & Friedman, Jed & Gibson, John, 2012. "Methods of household consumption measurement through surveys: Experimental results from Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 3-18.
    20. Marta Pascual & David Cantarero & Paloma Lanza, 2018. "Health polarization and inequalities across Europe: an empirical approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1039-1051, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    polarisation; cohesion; inequality; Latin America; Caribbean;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty
    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution
    • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:dls:wpaper:0038. 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: Ana Pacheco (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/funlpar.html .

    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.