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All that glitters is not gold : polarization amid poverty reduction in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Clementi,Fabio
  • Molini,Vasco
  • Schettino,Francesco
Abstract
Ghana is an exceptional case in the Sub-Saharan Africa landscape. Together with a handful of other countries, Ghana offers the opportunity to analyze the distributional changes in the past two decades, since four comparable household surveys are available. In addition, different from many other countries in the continent, Ghana's rapid growth translated into fast poverty reduction. A closer look at the distributional changes that occurred in the same period, however, suggests less optimism. The present paper develops an innovative methodology to analyze the distributional changes that occurred and their drivers, with a high degree of accuracy and granularity. Looking at the results from 1991 to 2012, the paper documents how the distributional changes hollowed out the middle of the Ghanaian household consumption distribution and increased the concentration of households around the highest and lowest deciles; there was a clear surge in polarization indeed. When looking at the drivers of polarization, household characteristics, educational attainment, and access to basic infrastructure all tended to increase over time the size of the upper and lower tails of the consumption distribution and, as a consequence, the degree of polarization.

Suggested Citation

  • Clementi,Fabio & Molini,Vasco & Schettino,Francesco, 2016. "All that glitters is not gold : polarization amid poverty reduction in Ghana," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7758, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7758
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    2. Zhang, Chen & Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Top incomes and income polarisation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Geoffrey M. Kistruck & Patrick Shulist, 2021. "Linking Management Theory with Poverty Alleviation Efforts Through Market Orchestration," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(2), pages 423-446, October.
    4. Ricci, Chiara Assunta & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "The role of Great Recession on income polarization by population groups," GLO Discussion Paper Series 766, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Raju, Dhushyanth & Tanaka, Tomomi & Abanokova, Kseniya, 2024. "Poverty dynamics for Ghana during 2005/06–2016/17: an investigation using synthetic panels," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124105, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Clementi,F. & Fabiani,M. & Molini,V., 2018. "The devil is in the details : growth, polarization, and poverty reduction in Africa in the past two decades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8494, The World Bank.
    7. Schettino, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio & Suppa, Domenico, 2024. "COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1398, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Domenico Suppa, 2023. "Note bibliografiche: Schettino F. e Clementi F. (2022), Crisi, disuguaglianze e poverta'. Le iniquita' del capitalismo, da Lehman Brothers alla Covid-19, II edizione aggiornata, Napoli: La Citta' del ," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 76(301), pages 107-110.
    9. Schettino, Francesco & Khan, Haider A., 2020. "Income polarization in the USA: What happened to the middle class in the last few decades?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-161.
    10. Fabio Clementi & Vasco Molini & Francesco Schettino & Haider A. Khan & Michele Fabiani, 2023. "Polarization and its discontents: Morocco before and after the Arab Spring," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(1), pages 105-129, March.
    11. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.

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