Ravallion, Martin2014-08-212014-08-212001-07https://hdl.handle.net/10986/19593Comparing changes in inequality with initial levels, using new data, the author finds that within-country inequality in income or per capita consumption is converging toward medium levels--a Gini index around 40 percent. The finding is robust to allow for serially independent measurement error in inequality data and for short-run dynamics around longer-term trends. However, the convergence process is neither rapid nor certain, and more observations over time are needed to be confident of the pattern. The author offers an approach to modeling the determinants of inequality that may be a starting point for estimating richer models.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOANNUALIZED CHANGEARITHMETIC PROGRESSIONSAVERAGE GROWTHAVERAGE INCOMESAVERAGE PROCESSCONTINUING CONVERGENCECONVERGENCE PARAMETERCONVERGENCE PROCESSCONVERGENCE TESTCONVERGENCE TESTSCOUNTRY INEQUALITYCOUNTRY-SPECIFIC AUTOREGRESSION COEFFICIENTSCOUNTRY-SPECIFIC INTERCEPTSCOUNTRY-SPECIFIC TRENDCOUNTRY-SPECIFIC TRENDSCOVARIANCE MATRIXCOVARIANCE MATRIX ESTIMATORCROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONSCROSS-COUNTRY PANELDATA COMPILATIONSDATA MODELDATA QUALITYDATA SETDATA SETSDEPENDENT VARIABLEDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPMENT INDICATORSDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDISTRIBUTIONAL DATADYNAMIC STRUCTUREECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC POLICYECONOMIC POLICY CONVERGENCEECONOMIC REFORMECONOMIC RESEARCHECONOMIC REVIEWEDUCATION SYSTEMSEXCHANGE RATEEXCHANGE RATE REGIMEEXPLAINING INEQUALITYEXPLANATORY VARIABLESEXTRA DUMMY VARIABLESGINI INDEXGROWTH EMPIRICSGROWTH FUNDAMENTALSGROWTH-PROMOTING POLICYHETEROSKEDASTICITYHIGH INEQUALITYHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHOUSEHOLD WELFAREHUMAN CAPITALIDENTIFICATION ASSUMPTIONSIDIOSYNCRATIC SHOCKSINCOMEINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME INEQUALITYINCOMES SURVEYSINDEPENDENT MEASUREMENTINDEPENDENT MEASUREMENT ERRORINDIVIDUAL COUNTRIESINDIVIDUAL INCOMESINEQUALITYINEQUALITYINEQUALITY CONVERGENCEINEQUALITY DATAINEQUALITY INDEXINEQUALITY MEASUREINEQUALITY MEASURESINEQUALITY TRENDSINEQUALITY WILLINEQUALITY WILL INCREASEJOB CREATIONLAGGED VALUELINEAR REGRESSIONLINEAR RELATIONSHIPLOCAL INSTITUTIONSLOG GINIMACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCEMACROECONOMICSMARKET ECONOMYMARKET-ORIENTED ECONOMYMEAN ERROR TERMMEAN INCOMEMEAN INCOME CONVERGENCEMEASURED INEQUALITYMEASUREMENT ERRORMEASUREMENT ERRORSMEASURING INCOME INEQUALITYMEASURING INEQUALITYMEDIUM INEQUALITYMEDIUM LEVELSMICRO DATANATIONAL ACCOUNTSNEGATIVE COEFFICIENTSNEGATIVE CORRELATIONNEGLIGIBLE DIFFERENCENEOCLASSICAL GROWTHNEOCLASSICAL GROWTH MODELNEOCLASSICAL GROWTH PROCESSNEOCLASSICAL MODELOBSERVED CHANGEOBSERVED CHANGESPENSION REFORMPER CAPITA CONSUMPTIONPER CAPITA DISTRIBUTIONSPOLICY DISCUSSIONSPOLICY ISSUESPOLICY REFORMSPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL CONSTRAINTSPREDICTED INITIALPRO-POORPRO-POOR DISTRIBUTIONSPUBLIC GOODSPUBLIC POLICYQUALITY GROWTHSECONDARY SOURCESSERIAL CORRELATIONSERIAL DEPENDENCESERIAL INDEPENDENCESERIES ECONOMETRICSSERIES OBSERVATIONSSERIES OBSERVATIONS CASTSSHORT SERIESSHORT-RUN DYNAMICSSHORT-TERM DYNAMICSSIGNIFICANT NEGATIVESTATISTICAL METHODSSURVEY DESIGNTRANSITION ECONOMIESWELFARE INDICATORSWORLD INCOME DISTRIBUTION10.1596/1813-9450-2645