Two Decades of Rising Inequality and Declining Poverty in the Lao People's Democratic Republic

Arbeitspapier

Over the last 2 decades the distribution of private household expenditures has become more unequal in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, with the Gini coefficient rising from 0.311 to 0.364, even though absolute poverty incidence has halved. The increase in inequality was statistically significant and reduced the average rate of poverty reduction per year by about 28%, meaning the actual rate compared with the counterfactual rate that would have occurred if the mean real expenditures had increased at their observed levels but inequality had not changed. When the data are decomposed into rural and urban areas of residence or by province, or by the ethnicity of the household head, the increase in inequality within groups dominates any changes between groups; inequality has increased throughout the country. In contrast, access to publicly provided services has become more equal; disparities in participation rates between richer and poorer groups have diminished.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ADB Economics Working Paper Series ; No. 461

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Distribution: Other ; Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty: Other
• Subject: expenditure inequality ; Gini coefficient ; Lao PDR ; poverty reduction

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Warr, Peter ; Rasphone, Sitthiroth ; Menon, Jayant
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Asian Development Bank (ADB)
• (where): Manila
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/128580
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET