Sam Jones publishes a paper in the Journal of Economic Inequality

Together with co-authors Vincenzo Salvucci and Channing Arndt, Sam Jones has recently published a paper in the Journal of Economic Inequality. Based on research undertaken in Mozambique, the paper examines how different trends in prices for different population sub-groups affect measures of inequality. Using household budget survey and price data from 2002/03 and 2008/09, the authors show that once relative price increases are accounted for, inequality of real consumption increases substantially. They obtain this result by constructing a price deflator that reflects divergent price dynamics of different product categories that are consumed in different quantities by richer and poorer households. Since the main factors driving this result prevail in other developing countries, it is likely that inequality may be underestimated elsewhere.