Different lives: inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

This chapter summarizes information on inequality in living standards in Latin American and Caribbean countries. To that aim we work with a sample of more than 50 household surveys from 20 LAC countries from 1989 to 2001, and we survey results from other authors. Although the core of the statistics are on household income inequality, the study also presents information by country/year on inequality in the distribution of earnings, hourly wages, hours, worked, employment, unemployment, child labor, non-labor income, education, literacy, school enrollment, household size, housing, land ownership, social services, health status and services, political representation and crime victimization. Additionally, we report results on aggregate welfare and other dimensions of social justice, beyond inequality: polarization, mobility, and poverty. From the results reported in this chapter LAC emerges today as a very unequal region, (i) in comparison to other regions, (ii) in comparison to LAC in previous decades, and (iii) in terms of the potential gains in aggregate welfare that can be achieved with a more equal distribution.