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L. Assouad - Understanding the Lebanese protests through the prism of extreme inequalities (January 2020)

In a few words

Massive anti-governmental protests erupted in Lebanon last October. They seem partly fueled by a specific economic situation: an extreme concentration of wealth and income, with almost no equivalent in the world. Protesters are calling for an end to the corrupt political system kept in place by an elite that has for decades, according to them, denied the majority of the population economic opportunities and the ability to make ends meet. This is not surprising if we look at the data.

In a recent study, Lydia Assouad (PSE/EHESS/WIL) has collected the only income tax records data available in the region, and combined them with household surveys and national accounts to produce the first estimates of the national income distribution in Lebanon. She finds that income is extremely concentrated, with the top 1% of the adult population receiving 25% of national income on average. More strikingly, the richest 0.1 percent of the Lebanese population, around 3,700 people, earns as much as the bottom 50 percent, almost 2 million people—both equivalent to one tenth of national income. The richest group largely overlaps with the political class. This social polarization has exacerbated the disconnect between the ruling elite and “the rest” of the population, at the origin of the protests. Shi‘a from the southern city of Tyre and Sunnis from the northern city of Tripoli have found common ground: the political elite extracts large rents at their expense.

References of the academic paper

« Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon 2005-2014 » WID.world Working Paper 2017/14

Author

Lydia Assouad, PhD Student PSE/EHESS, research fellow WIL - personal website

Press review

  • Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21/10/2019 - Lebanon has many billionaires and a large mountain of debt. Under massive street pressure, the Lebanese government has passed a comprehensive reform package. However, to regain the confidence of the population, the richer elite would have to make much greater sacrifices...
  • France Culture, 22/10/2019 - Les manifestations au Liban analysées sous le prisme des inégalités sociales. Lydia Assouad, doctorante à l’Ecole d’Economie de Paris et chercheuse associée au World Inequality Lab, estime que le mouvement social qui dure depuis cinq jours, par-delà les clivages confessionnels et malgré les annonces de Saad Hariri, est largement dû aux inégalités sociales...
  • De Standaard, 22/10/2019 - Lebanese demonstrators win first battle. Following massive street protests, the Lebanese government has accepted major reforms, including a halving of ministerial salaries. The demonstrators are not impressed...
  • Le Grand Continent, 25/10/2019 - La cause des protestations au Liban : l’extrême inégalité. Les protestations massives qui ont éclaté au Liban après l’annonce par le gouvernement de deux nouvelles mesures fiscales régressives ont leur origine profonde dans les niveaux extrêmement élevés d’inégalité dans le pays, qui durent depuis longtemps...
  • Cumhuriyet, 22/11/2019 - Will Lebanon gain ’independence’? There is a “bottom-up” pressure for change in Lebanon. Can the “Lebanese”, who have not been able to gain “independence” for 76 years, now be able to at least be fully Lebanese?...
  • Zeit Online, 27/11/2019 - Mr Salame and the big bluff. Lebanon is on the verge of a national bankruptcy. Is the crisis-tested head of the central bank himself responsible for the misery this time?...