Inequality Decomposition in the Distribution of Income and Child Health in Cameroon

Francis Menjo Baye¹, Boniface Ngah Epo^1, and Simon Alain Song Ntamack¹

¹Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaoundé II, Cameroon

Cite this paper:
Francis Menjo Baye, Boniface Ngah Epo and Simon Alain Song Ntamack. Inequality Decomposition in the Distribution of Income and Child Health in Cameroon. American Journal of Rural Development. 2013; 1(1):6-14. doi: 10.12691/ajrd-1-1-2

Abstract

We undertake a spatial and inter-temporal decomposition of the S-Gini inequality index using the Shapley Value-based approach, and both money-metric and child health indicators collected by the government’s statistics office in 1996 and 2001. Changes in income inequalities are driven largely by changes in between-zone inequalities; for child health, the within-zone component remains more important. Results point to the wisdom of considering the redistribution of health facilities and services within-zones rather than across if the intention is to cost-effectively reduce overall health inequalities. In the monetary space, an optimal-mix of within- and between-zone distributive measures is important in addressing inequality.

Keywords:
Gini decomposition Shapley value income child health and Cameroon

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Government of Cameroon, The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Programming and Regional Development, 2003.
[2]	Baye, M. F., “Growth, Redistribution and Poverty Changes in Cameroon: A Shapley Decomposition Analysis”, Journal of African Economies, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 543-570, 2006.
[3]	Baye, M. F. and Amungwa, F. A., “Training in Partnership for Development: The Case of Agricultural Family Schools in Rural Cameroon”, Pakistan Economic and Social Review, Vol. XL, No. 1, pp. 35-55, 2002.
[4]	Baye, M. F. and Fambon, S., “Decomposition of Inequality in the Distribution of Living Standards in Cameroon”, African Journal of Economic Policy, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 51-75, 2002.
[5]	Araar, A., “The Shapley Value”, paper presented at the SISERA Training Workshop on Poverty Dynamics, Kampala, Uganda, 22-30 January, 2003.
[6]	Chameni, C., N., “A Three component Subgroup Decomposition of the Hirschman-Herfinduhl Index and Households Income Inequality in Cameroon”, Applied Economic Letter, 12, pp. 941-947, 2005.
[7]	Chameni C., N., “A note on the decomposition of the coefficient of variation squared: comparing entropy and Dagum’s methods”, Economics bulletin, Vol. 4, No.8, pg. 1-8, 2006.
[8]	Shorrocks, A. F., “Decomposition Procedures for Distributional Analysis: A Unified Framework Based on Shapley Value”, Mimeo, Department of Economics, University of Essex, 1999.
[9]	Chantreuil, F. and Trannoy, A., “Inequality Decomposition Values”, mimeo, Université de Cergy-Pointoise, 1997.
[10]	Shorrocks, A. F., “Inequality Decomposition by Population Sub-groups”, Econometrica, 52 (6): 1369-85, 1984.
[11]	Fields, G. S., Poverty, Inequality and Development, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1980.
[12]	Glewwe, P., “The Distribution of Income in Sri Lanka in 1969-70 and 1980-81: A Decomposition Analysis”, Journal of Development Economics 24: pp. 255-274, 1986.
[13]	Litchfield, J. A., Inequality: Method and Tools. The World Bank, Washington D.C., available on,http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/inequal/index.htm, date: 1999.
[14]	Kakwani, N., Income Inequality and Poverty: Methods of Estimation and Policy Applications, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
[15]	Adams, Jr. R.H., and Alderman, H., “Sources of Income Inequality in Rural Pakistan: A Decomposition Analysis”, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 54(4): 592-608, 1992.
[16]	Leibrandt, M.V., Woolard, C.D., and Woolard, I.D., “The contribution of Income Components to Income Inequality in South Africa. A Decomposable Gini Analysis”, World Bank LSMS Working Papers No. 125, 1996.
[17]	Duclos, J., Y., Poverty and Equity: Theory and Estimation. CREFA, Université Laval, Canada, Preliminary Version, January, 2002.
[18]	Bhattacharaya, N. and B. Mahalanobis, “Regional Disparities in Household Consumption in India,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, 62, 1967.
[19]	Lambert, P. J. and J. R. Aronson, “Inequality Decomposition Analysis and the Gini Coefficient Revisited”, Economic Journal, 103, pp. 1221-27, 1993.
[20]	Sen, A., K. (1985). Commodities and Capabilities. Oxford: Elsevier Science Publishers.
[21]	Sahn, D., E. and S., D., Younger., “Improvements in children’s health: Does inequality matter?”, The Journal of Economic Inequality 3(2): pp. 125-143, 2005.
[22]	National Institute of Statistics, Data Base of ECAM II, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Programming and Regional Development, 2001.
[23]	National Institute of Statistics, Preliminary results of ECAM I and ECAM II, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Programming and Regional Development, 2002.