Abstract
Ethiopia has consumption inequalities which are higher in urban areas as compared to the rural areas in the country. There are considerable differences in regional consumption inequalities between different regions of the country. This study uses a multistage multidimensional inequality analysis for multidimensional poverty indicators. Even though multidimensional poverty is high, multidimensional inequalities are quite low in Ethiopia. The inequalities in the multidimensional indicators decrease over the wealth quintiles and living standards contribute the most to multidimensional inequalities. There are inequalities in landholding patterns in Ethiopia and these inequalities differ across regions and wealth quintiles. Reducing inequalities between socioeconomic groups will have a big impact on reducing poverty as compared to reducing inequalities within groups as between-group elasticity is greater than within-group elasticity. A gender based decomposition of inequalities shows that within-group inequalities, the marginal impact of inequalities, and the marginal impact of poverty are greater than the between-group components. Between regions inequalities are greater than within region inequalities, so there are significant differences in the inequalities between regions in Ethiopia which need to be considered. Parents’ education has a positive impact on children’s education. Mothers’ education contributes more than fathers’ education to both sons’ and daughters’ education. In countries like Ethiopia where girls are marginalized, educating daughters (tomorrow’s mothers) has a positive intergenerational inequality reducing effect.
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Tigre, G. (2020). Multidimensional Inequality in Ethiopia. In: Wood, J., Habimana, O. (eds) A Multidimensional Economic Assessment of Africa. Frontiers in African Business Research. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4510-8_5
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