Jirasavetakul, La-Bhus FahLakner, Christoph2016-03-092016-03-092016-02https://hdl.handle.net/10986/23913This paper uses a set of national household surveys to study the regional Sub-Saharan Africa distribution of consumption expenditure among individuals during 1993 to 2008. The analysis puts the disparities in living standards that exist among persons in Africa into context with the disparities that exist within and between African countries. Regional interpersonal inequality has increased (from a Gini index of 52 percent in 1993 to 56 percent in 2008), driven by increasing disparities in living standards across countries, while there has been no systematic increase in within-country inequality. For the African distribution as a whole, growth of consumption expenditure (from household surveys) has been low (around 1 percent per year). This growth has been uneven and as a result the richest 5 percent of Africans received around 40 percent of the total gains, while the bottom third stagnated.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOLIVING STANDARDSPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONGROWTH RATESINCOME SHAREPOVERTY LINEECONOMIC GROWTHCOUNTRY CLASSIFICATIONSDEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCEPRICE LEVELSLAGSINCOMEINCREASING INEQUALITYPOVERTY ESTIMATESREAL GDPEXCHANGEGDP PER CAPITAECONOMIC REVIEWDEVELOPING COUNTRIESPOVERTY HEADCOUNTAVERAGE INCOMESWELFAREREAL GROWTHECONOMIC POLICYDISTRIBUTIONPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOOR PEOPLEGROWTH SPELLSDISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONSCONSUMPTION GROWTHAVERAGE INEQUALITYWEALTHDECREASING INEQUALITYECONOMIC OUTLOOKINEQUALITY RESULTSPER CAPITA INCOMESBETWEEN-GROUP INEQUALITYMEASURING POVERTYPER CAPITA INCOMEDEVELOPMENT ECONOMICSPOPULATION GROWTHINEQUALITY MEASURESINCOME INEQUALITYAVERAGE INCOMESIGNIFICANCE LEVELEXCHANGE RATESBASE YEARECONOMETRICSHOUSEHOLD INCOMEINFLATION RATEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSLAND OWNERSHIPRELATIVE PRICESPRODUCTPOOR GROWTHNATURAL RESOURCESINCOME CONVERGENCEINEQUALITY COMPONENTECONOMIC RESEARCHLOGARITHMIC SCALEPOWER PARITYREGIONAL MEDIANCONSUMPTIONINEQUALITY ESTIMATESECONOMIC PERFORMANCEPOPULATION SHARELORENZ CURVEVALUEDEPENDENT VARIABLEDISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONINCOME DISTRIBUTIONSPURCHASING POWERDEVELOPING WORLDINCREASING SHAREMEAN INCOMENATIONAL INCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOMESINEQUALITY DECOMPOSITIONMEASUREMENTBENCHMARKMACRO-ECONOMIC POLICYECONOMIC THEORYMEAN CONSUMPTIONINEQUALITY MEASURECUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONECONOMIC INEQUALITYFALLING POVERTYTRADELOW INCOMERESIDUAL INEQUALITYGROUP INEQUALITYGDPDATA SETTHEORYECONOMIES OF SCALEGROWTH RATEEXTREME POVERTYGROWTH PERFORMANCEAVERAGE ANNUALEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEPRIVATE CONSUMPTIONDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTHPOSITIVE GROWTHPOLICY RESEARCHPOVERTY RATEANNUAL RATEMEASURING INEQUALITYMARGINAL PROPENSITY TO CONSUMEMIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIESPOSITIVE EFFECTSGROWTH PROCESSINCOME LEVELDEVELOPMENT POLICYINCOME GROUPSINEQUALITYREGIONAL INEQUALITYWorking PaperWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-7557