World Bank Document

posttax income and conceptually tical system in many countries, income, not according to their totalare roughly comparable with the estimates were typically derived household income, is superior fordistributions for developing coun- from surveys designed for other many purposes. The distinctiontries. Thae estimates for Latin purposes, most often consumer is important because householdsAmerican countries other than expenditure surveys, which also with low per capita incomesMexico come from the preliminary collect some information on income. frequently are large households,results of a joint project of the These surveys use a variety of whose total income may be rela-World Bank and the UN Economic income concepts and sample de- tively high. For this reason it isCommission for Latin America signs. With few exceptions the best to use the distribution of(ECLA). Those for Mexico are the analysis of data does not take into individuals ranked by per capitaresults from the 1977 Household account the differences in house- household income when comparingBudget Survey. The estimates for hold size. Furthermore, the cover- two distributions for welfaremost developing countries in Asia age of many of these surveys is purposes-say, those of two counarefrom the preliminary results too limited to provide reliable tries or those of rural and urbanof a joint project of the World nationwide estimates of income areas in a country. InformationBank and the Economic and Social distribution. Thus, although the on the distribution of per capitaCommission for Asia and the estimates are considered the best household income exists, however,Pacific (ESCAP). The distributions available, they do not avoid all for only a few countries. The Worldfor other developing countries are these problems and should be Bank recently launched the Livingfrom data gathered by the World interpreted with extreme caution. Standards Measurement Study toBank from national sources. The scope of the indicator is develop procedures and applica-Because the collection of data similarly limited. Because house- tions that can assist countries inon income distribution has not holds vary in size, a distribution improving their collection and analbeensystematically organized and in which households are ranked ysis of data on income distribution.integrated into the official statis- according to per capita household165