AIPRIL seminar series

Anne-Sophie Robilliard - How large are African inequalities?

Topic

In this seminar, Anne-Sopie Robilliard will be sharing insights on recent research regarding African inequalities. Using the most recent data available on WID.world to estimate inequality for the African continent, three main results are worth highlighting. First, the analysis confirms that inequality levels in the African region are extremely high, with average country-level top 10% income shares estimated at 50%. Second, we show a clear North-South gradient of increasing inequality across the continent, which reflects both the situation at Independence and the political economy and institutions that followed. Third, inequality levels seem to have changed very little on average over the last decades but contrasted dynamics are observed at the sub-regional level. These dynamics remain to be investigated.

About the speaker

Anne-Sophie Robilliard, who studied economics, is a Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development) and works at World Inequality Lab (Paris School of Economics, France) where she acts as Africa coordinator. Her research work focuses on developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on the analysis of microeconomic data on households, she studies issues related to the determinants of poverty and inequality as well as questions concerning women's participation in the labour market in relation to demographic dynamics and negotiation within households.

Practical information

This online seminar took place on Monday 15 March 2021.