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Republic of Cyprus experienced the 1980's zeitgeist, with its "yuppies" and its real
estáte boom, but has inequality widened? "By applying the Gini coefficient for
gross household income, it was suggested that Cyprus had an inequality of incomes
comparable with European countries, with a hint that perhaps Cyprus taxation
reduces inequality a little more than in European countries" 60 . This begs the
question, which European countries? The UK, with a top rate marginal tax of 40%
or France with a rate of 62 % 61 ? Christodoulou's argument appears to be based on
data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey, conducted between 1984
and 1985 by the Department of Statistics and Research, the results of which were
published by the ILO/UNFPA 62 . In that publication the author, William House,
states of Cyprus in the mid 1980s 63 :
...at the level of the household, the size of the Gini coefficient of
inequality is about what we might expect it to be in a middle-income
developing country such as Cyprus [0.37]. It is lower than in relatively
underdeveloped countries such as Kenya (Gini of 0.59), Zambia (0.56),
Philippines (0.46) and Sudan (0.44) but higher than in some industrialised
countries such as Denmark (0.30), Sweden (0.30), the United Kingdom
(0.32) and Ireland (0.32).
Does Christodoulou's "hint" at slightly more progressive taxation, than has been the
général European practice, take into account the negative taxation of the "middle
class ideology" (cited above) and the relatively high dependence on indirect taxation
60 ibid., p. 223.
61 StewartM. 1993. Kevnes in the 1990's. London: Penguin Economies, p.93.
62 House, W.J. 1988. Socio-economic and Demographic characteristics of income distribution in
Cyprus. Geneva: ILO/UNFPA.
6 Hbid., pp. 7-8.