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When More Poor Means Less Poverty: On Income Inequality and Purchasing Power

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We show theoretically that the poor can benefit from price changes induced by higher income inequality. As the number of poor in a society increases, or when the income difference between rich and poor increases, the market for products aimed towards the poor grows and such products become more profitable. As a result, there are circumstances where an increase in poverty associates with higher purchasing power of the poor. Using cross-country data at two points in time on the price of rice and Big Mac hamburgers, we confirm the relationship between inequality and purchasing power of the poor, and show that it is robust to several control variables and also to a first-difference specification.

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  • Bergh, Andreas & Nilsson, Therese, 2012. "When More Poor Means Less Poverty: On Income Inequality and Purchasing Power," Working Paper Series 900, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0900
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    1. Andreas Bergh & Therese Nilsson, 2014. "When More Poor Means Less Poverty: On Income Inequality and Purchasing Power," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(1), pages 232-246, July.
    2. Abhimanyu Dadu & Namrata Gulati, 2014. "Inequality, neighborhoods and variation in prices," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    3. Namrata Gulati & Abhimanyu Dadu, 2014. "Inequality, Neighbourhoods and Variation in Prices," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(3), pages 1463-1484.

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    Keywords

    Inequality; Poverty; Prices; Purchasing power;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

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