Regional income inequality in Egypt: Evolution and implications for Sustainable Development Goal 10

Research on income inequality in developing economies has scarcely looked at the regional dimension. This is important, as progress in reducing income inequality at national level can only be partially successful if a country consists of very unequal regions alongside relatively equal ones. Using newly assembled Luxembourg Income Study data, we study the evolution of income inequality within Egyptian regions during 1999-2015. The analysis offers three findings. First, income inequality has generally increased. Second, regional differences in income inequality tended to decrease, but less unequal regions are converging to similar levels of inequality of more unequal regions. Third, there has been a decrease in the income share of the bottom 40% and an increase in the proportion of people living below 50% of median income. Hence, geographically diffused progress on the first two targets of SDG 10 depends on reversing these trends.