Income inequality
Data also show trend reversals at the level of individual countries. For example, of the 50 countries with rising inequality in the 1980s and 1990s, the levels of inequality fell in the 2000s for 23 countries. However, of the 30 countries with falling inequality in the 1980s and 1990s, 15 countries started to see increases in the levels of income inequality in the 2000s (Table 3.6). Table 3.7 shows that, in most regions, more countries experienced falling inequality in the 2000s than in the 1980s and 1990s. For example, in the 2000s, 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean had falling inequality (compared to only six in the 1980s and 1990s) and five countries in Eastern Europe and the ECIS had falling inequality (compared to just two in the 1980s and 1990s). The only exception to this trend is the Asia and the Pacific region, where there were fewer countries with falling inequality in the 1980s and 1990s than in the 2000s.
Table 3.7. Number of countries with rising and falling inequality by income status and region (1980-1999 and 2000-2010) High income All
Low & middle income Africa
Arab States
A&P
ECIS
3
14
LAC
Total
1980–1999 Rising inequality
22
2
1
3
1
7
5
3
7
29
10
5
14
3
1
No change
7
Falling inequality Total
8
50
1
5
2
6
30
10
16
15
85
6
11
3
38
2000–2010 Rising inequality No change
4
1
5
Falling inequality
11
7
3
4
5
12
42
Total
29
10
5
10
16
15
85
Source: UNDP calculations using data from Solt (2009).
The above-mentioned findings are consistent with the analysis of global inequality trends carried out by Cornia and Marorano (2012). They observe that the 1980s and 1990s were characterized by a dominance of increases in within-country income inequality in all regions except the Middle East and North Africa, while, from 2000 to 2010, they observe a bifurcation in inequality trends. They note a marked and unanticipated decline in income inequality in practically all of Latin America and in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and SouthEast Asia. However, inequality continued its upward trend — if at a slower pace — in most OECD countries, in the European and Asian transition economies, in South Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa. They note that the year of inflection of the Gini trend varied somewhat as a result of region-specific circumstances. In particular, the majority of countries of the South-East Asian and Asian economies in transition (Cambodia, China, and Viet Nam) experienced a steady inequality rise in both sub-periods. In contrast, after a rapid surge between 1990 and 1998, the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union recorded an average modest decline in the Gini index during the years 1998–2003. This decline, however, was followed in subsequent years by a further income polarization. Cornia and Marorano observe that, in sub-Saharan Africa,
Humanity Divided: Confronting Inequality in Developing Countries 69