باید تا چه اندازه در مورد تغییر نابرابری درآمد در دوره رشد اقتصادی مراقب بود؟

This paper asks how much we should care about changes in Lorenz curves and standard inequality measures when economic growth takes place. I conclude that these changes are of some importance but that other aspects of inequality and poverty are more important.

In December 2006, the new President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, convened a workshop on economic inequality. Chile has achieved a 4.2% annual rate of economic growth over the last 30 years, an enviable record indeed for a Latin American country. In the course of this economic growth, indigence and poverty have been falling continuously. Yet, Chile has one of the most unequal distributions of income in Latin America, which is the highest inequality region in the world, and income inequality in Chile remains, in the President's words, “stubbornly stagnant.” This fact motivated her to convene a workshop on the question of how much should we care about income inequality. This paper, based on the keynote speech I delivered at that workshop, attempts to answer this question, not just for Chile but for the developing countries more generally. Four aspects of income distribution may be distinguished. Income inequality involves comparisons between some incomes and others.1Poverty analysis entails people identifying who is poor and then quantifying the extent of poverty in the population.2Income mobility is about the changes in income or economic position when the same are followed over time.3 Finally, economic well-being studies ask, when is one income distribution better than another?4 This paper discusses how much attention the inequality aspect of income distribution should receive as compared with the other three aspects. I begin by presenting data on poverty and inequality in the world at present and how these aspects of income distribution have changed in the course of economic growth. I then present my own views on the relative importance of inequality and poverty and then proceed to the title question.

Based on the preceding, my own views on how much attention should be given to inequality change in the course of economic growth can be summed up as follows: First, do not worry much about what Lorenz curves, Lorenz-consistent inequality measures, and most other standard inequality measures are telling us. Second, worry some about what the ratio of high incomes to low incomes is telling us. Third, worry more about the inequality between salient groups. Fourth, worry even more about inequality of opportunity, especially by socioeconomic origin. And fifth, worry the most about poverty. Specifically, from a policy point of view, I would urge governments to declare poverty, not inequality, to be the principal concern, precisely as President Fox did. I would want priority to be given to policies to reduce poverty by focusing economic growth and other efforts on the lower tail of the income distribution. I would also stress policies aimed at improving equality of opportunity. Such a program might involve: (a) Improving the ability of the poor to earn their way out of poverty, be it in wage employment or in self-employment; (b) upgrading workers’ productive skills and abilities; (c) strengthening social protection for the very poor; and (d) offering improved opportunities to the lower classes. Such choices are consequential. The fate of hundreds of millions of economically miserable people in the world lies in the balance.