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

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

Author(s)

Philippe de Vreyer, Sylvie Lambert

Date of publication
  • 2018
Keywords JEL
C81 D13 D31 I32 O12 O15
Keywords
  • Inequality
  • Poverty
  • Household surveys
  • Intra-household allocation
  • Senegal
Internal reference
  • PSE Working Papers n°2018-12
Version
  • 1