Income Distribution in East Asian Developing Countries: recent trends

This paper updates estimates of the trends in income distribution in the eight countries of the developing East and Southeast Asian region. In the last update by Krongkaew (1994), inequality was found to be increasing in the newly industrialising economies of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian-Pacific economic literature 2005-11, Vol.19 (2), p.36-54
Main Author: Zin, Ragayah Haji Mat
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asia
Asia Pacific Region
Comparative analysis
Data analysis
Developing countries
East Asia
Economic conditions
Economic crisis
Income distribution
Industrialization
Inequality
Macroeconomic policy
Regional disparities
Southeast Asia
Studies
Trends
Welfare
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Summary:This paper updates estimates of the trends in income distribution in the eight countries of the developing East and Southeast Asian region. In the last update by Krongkaew (1994), inequality was found to be increasing in the newly industrialising economies of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, while in the ASEAN−4 (with the exception of Thailand) it was declining. Since then, the region has undergone the East Asian financial crisis of 1997–98. Recent data indicate that income distribution in Hong Kong and Taiwan continues to improve. Income inequality in South Korea declined until 1993 but began to increase slowly until the crisis sharply widened the disparity. The evidence for Singapore is mixed, with one set of estimates showing a dip in inequality while another indicates a widening of income disparity during the crisis. The crisis had the immediate impact of improving income distribution in all the ASEAN–4 countries, mainly because of reductions in the income shares of the top income groups. Later data show that inequality has since risen in all of them, except for Malaysia (for which no recent data are available).
ISSN:0818-9935
1467-8411
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8411.2005.00167.x