Christoph Lakner | The World Bank (original) (raw)
Papers by Christoph Lakner
Policy Research Working Papers
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note Series, 2020
Policy Research Working Papers, 2022
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Given substantial differences in price levels across countries, international spatial deflators a... more Given substantial differences in price levels across countries, international spatial deflators are needed to compare welfare aggregates to a common international poverty line. This note describes the sources of the purchasing power parities that are used forevery country included in the World Bank's estimates of global poverty, published in PovcalNet. These exchange rates are used to express welfare aggregates in 2011 international dollars.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The World Bank Economic Review, 2015
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper presents the most up-to-date evidence on national inequality in income or consumption ... more This paper presents the most up-to-date evidence on national inequality in income or consumption from as many countries as possible. We find that the Gini index for the average country began to fall in the early 2000s, but remains higher in 2013 than 25 years earlier. In a sample of countries with strictly comparable household surveys between 2008 and 2013, for every country where the Gini index increased by more than 1 point, there are two countries where it fell by more than 1 point. These findings are robust to a number of factors, including the use of alternative databases of inequality indicators. While we have used the best available evidence from household surveys, a number of measurement issues, such as missing top incomes and the use of expenditure instead of income surveys, remain unresolved. JEL Codes: D31, D63
The last poverty assessment for Rwanda was conducted in 1997. Three years after the genocide, the... more The last poverty assessment for Rwanda was conducted in 1997. Three years after the genocide, the country was characterized by deep and widespread poverty, rock-bottom health indicators, and pervasive hunger and food insecurity. In real terms, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was lower than it had been in 1960. In real terms, the economy quadrupled between 1995 and 2013. Enrolment in primary school is near universal and infant and child mortality are among the lowest in Africa. A large part of the population, including the extreme poor, is covered by public health insurance. This poverty assessment focuses on the evolution of poverty and other social indicators over the past decade (2000-1 and 2010-11). Using data from a variety of sources, mainly the three household living standards surveys (EICV) and the three demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted during the past decade, the poverty assessment documents trends in monetary and non-monetary dimensions of living stand...
Poverty estimates from household surveys are not available every year for most economies. To addr... more Poverty estimates from household surveys are not available every year for most economies. To address these data gaps and to aggregate poverty estimates across groups of economies (and the world), adjustments to household survey data are needed to align estimates to common reference years. This note summarizes the methods and data used for aligning (or lining up) and aggregating World Bank poverty estimates to common reference years. The data and methods presented here are the ones used in PovcalNet as of 2019, and build on the approach described by Chen and Ravallion (2004), and also documented in Ferreira et al. (2015) and World Bank (2015, 2018). The note summarizes the methodology, as described in these sources and implemented in PovcalNet, and the current data sources used.
To compare welfare aggregates over time and across space, the World Bank's global poverty est... more To compare welfare aggregates over time and across space, the World Bank's global poverty estimates incorporate temporal and spatial price adjustments, as well as currency changes. This short note summarizes these adjustments in a simple framework and provides the basis for more detailed papers documenting each of the components.
This paper is motivated by two observations. First, top income shares in the United States increa... more This paper is motivated by two observations. First, top income shares in the United States increased rapidly since the 1980s. Second, at the same time, the share of income from labour at the top of the income distribution increased substantially. Using data derived from tax records, we study the joint distribution of capital and labour incomes. The marginal distributions of labour and capital income have both become more unequal. Using a non-parametric copula framework, we show that incomes from labour and capital have become more closely associated at the top. This can explain why the top income share in terms of total income increased faster than in either of the marginal distributions. Furthermore, the association is asymmetric such that top wage earners are more likely to also receive high capital incomes, compared with top capital income recipients receiving high wages. Hence the richest tax units are highly paid but also receive high incomes from capital, while there remain so...
The March 2021 update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM) involves changes to the data ... more The March 2021 update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM) involves changes to the data underlying the multidimensional poverty estimates based on the Global Monitoring Database (GMD). This update reports new estimates for circa 2017, revising the estimates that were first published in October 2020. Some changes reflect the availability of more recent survey data for the economies already part of the GMD. Other changes are due to the addition of 9 new economies to the dataset, the release of new population data and new monetary poverty estimates. Notably, this update accompanies the launch of an online dashboard containing the data and results presented in this document. This includes an online tool that allows users to modify the weights used when aggregating the different indicators in the MPM headcount ratio.
Statistical Software Components, 2015
The povcalnet commands allows Stata users to compute poverty and inequality indicators for more t... more The povcalnet commands allows Stata users to compute poverty and inequality indicators for more than 160 countries and regions in the World Bank's database of household surveys. It has the same functionality as the PovcalNet website. PovcalNet is a computational tool that allows users to estimate poverty rates for regions, sets of countries or individual countries, over time and at any poverty line.
Policy Research Working Papers
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Global Poverty Monitoring Technical Note Series, 2020
Policy Research Working Papers, 2022
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Given substantial differences in price levels across countries, international spatial deflators a... more Given substantial differences in price levels across countries, international spatial deflators are needed to compare welfare aggregates to a common international poverty line. This note describes the sources of the purchasing power parities that are used forevery country included in the World Bank's estimates of global poverty, published in PovcalNet. These exchange rates are used to express welfare aggregates in 2011 international dollars.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
Policy Research Working Papers, 2016
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
The World Bank Economic Review, 2015
The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encoura... more The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.
This paper presents the most up-to-date evidence on national inequality in income or consumption ... more This paper presents the most up-to-date evidence on national inequality in income or consumption from as many countries as possible. We find that the Gini index for the average country began to fall in the early 2000s, but remains higher in 2013 than 25 years earlier. In a sample of countries with strictly comparable household surveys between 2008 and 2013, for every country where the Gini index increased by more than 1 point, there are two countries where it fell by more than 1 point. These findings are robust to a number of factors, including the use of alternative databases of inequality indicators. While we have used the best available evidence from household surveys, a number of measurement issues, such as missing top incomes and the use of expenditure instead of income surveys, remain unresolved. JEL Codes: D31, D63
The last poverty assessment for Rwanda was conducted in 1997. Three years after the genocide, the... more The last poverty assessment for Rwanda was conducted in 1997. Three years after the genocide, the country was characterized by deep and widespread poverty, rock-bottom health indicators, and pervasive hunger and food insecurity. In real terms, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was lower than it had been in 1960. In real terms, the economy quadrupled between 1995 and 2013. Enrolment in primary school is near universal and infant and child mortality are among the lowest in Africa. A large part of the population, including the extreme poor, is covered by public health insurance. This poverty assessment focuses on the evolution of poverty and other social indicators over the past decade (2000-1 and 2010-11). Using data from a variety of sources, mainly the three household living standards surveys (EICV) and the three demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted during the past decade, the poverty assessment documents trends in monetary and non-monetary dimensions of living stand...
Poverty estimates from household surveys are not available every year for most economies. To addr... more Poverty estimates from household surveys are not available every year for most economies. To address these data gaps and to aggregate poverty estimates across groups of economies (and the world), adjustments to household survey data are needed to align estimates to common reference years. This note summarizes the methods and data used for aligning (or lining up) and aggregating World Bank poverty estimates to common reference years. The data and methods presented here are the ones used in PovcalNet as of 2019, and build on the approach described by Chen and Ravallion (2004), and also documented in Ferreira et al. (2015) and World Bank (2015, 2018). The note summarizes the methodology, as described in these sources and implemented in PovcalNet, and the current data sources used.
To compare welfare aggregates over time and across space, the World Bank's global poverty est... more To compare welfare aggregates over time and across space, the World Bank's global poverty estimates incorporate temporal and spatial price adjustments, as well as currency changes. This short note summarizes these adjustments in a simple framework and provides the basis for more detailed papers documenting each of the components.
This paper is motivated by two observations. First, top income shares in the United States increa... more This paper is motivated by two observations. First, top income shares in the United States increased rapidly since the 1980s. Second, at the same time, the share of income from labour at the top of the income distribution increased substantially. Using data derived from tax records, we study the joint distribution of capital and labour incomes. The marginal distributions of labour and capital income have both become more unequal. Using a non-parametric copula framework, we show that incomes from labour and capital have become more closely associated at the top. This can explain why the top income share in terms of total income increased faster than in either of the marginal distributions. Furthermore, the association is asymmetric such that top wage earners are more likely to also receive high capital incomes, compared with top capital income recipients receiving high wages. Hence the richest tax units are highly paid but also receive high incomes from capital, while there remain so...
The March 2021 update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM) involves changes to the data ... more The March 2021 update to the Multidimensional Poverty Measure (MPM) involves changes to the data underlying the multidimensional poverty estimates based on the Global Monitoring Database (GMD). This update reports new estimates for circa 2017, revising the estimates that were first published in October 2020. Some changes reflect the availability of more recent survey data for the economies already part of the GMD. Other changes are due to the addition of 9 new economies to the dataset, the release of new population data and new monetary poverty estimates. Notably, this update accompanies the launch of an online dashboard containing the data and results presented in this document. This includes an online tool that allows users to modify the weights used when aggregating the different indicators in the MPM headcount ratio.
Statistical Software Components, 2015
The povcalnet commands allows Stata users to compute poverty and inequality indicators for more t... more The povcalnet commands allows Stata users to compute poverty and inequality indicators for more than 160 countries and regions in the World Bank's database of household surveys. It has the same functionality as the PovcalNet website. PovcalNet is a computational tool that allows users to estimate poverty rates for regions, sets of countries or individual countries, over time and at any poverty line.