The dynamics of income inequality in Africa: An empirical investigation on the role of macroeconomic and institutional forces
基于库兹涅茨曲线框架，利用52个非洲国家1980-2017年的面板数据，发现人均收入存在多个稳态，且库兹涅茨曲线关系不稳定；高收入非洲国家不平等可能加剧，而低收入国家不平等在下降，宏观经济和制度因素的作用有限且因收敛俱乐部而异。
Reducing income inequality is a crucial goal of sustainable development as income inequality often viewed as harmful to economic growth. The main aim of this paper was to empirically assess the macroeconomic and institutional drivers of income inequality in Africa. We use a Kuznets curve framework, which emphasises the role of income per capita in explaining the time path of inequality. In contrast to much of the literature, we explicitly examine the possibility of the existence of multiple income steady states. Using the concept of clubs of convergence, we show that per capita income is divergent and identify four steady states to which groups of economies converge (i.e., high-income to low-income economies). Using panel data models and a data set encompassing 52 African countries spanning the years 1980–2017, we show that once these multiple steady states are accounted for, the Kuznets curve relationship becomes unstable. Our findings suggest that inequality may be increasing in high-income countries in Africa, while decreasing in low-income or the least developed economies. In addition, the role of macroeconomic and institutional factors in explaining income inequality is limited and differ across convergence clubs. Evidence suggests the importance of fiscal, employment and monetary policies and the rule of law to tackle inequality in high-income economies, while they have no statistically significant role in low-income economies’ income inequality.