Free Access | September 2000

Welfare Distribution and Poverty in Uganda, 1992-1997

Authors/Editors: John Ddumba Ssentamu ,  John A. Okidi

Abstract:

This study is done against a background of far-reaching economic reform policies and programs.· In the paper different measures of inequality and stochastic dominance analysis are applied to a series of regionally representative Uganda household survey data to shed light on the intertemporal patterns of changes in welfare levels and distribution in Uganda across geographical and socioeconomic groupings of policy interest. Using household consumption expenditure we find that, overall, inequality declined in Uganda between 1992 and 1997. However, within Eastern region, one of the four regions of the country, and among rural households, there was an increase in inequality during this period. Stochastic dominance· analysis of welfare distribution reveals that Ugandan households were better off in 1997 than in 1992 irrespective of the choice of a poverty line. At the regional level, a striking result is_ that, in Western region household welfare was not any better in 1997 than in 1996. An analysis of a sub-regional panel based on rural/urban categorization illustrates that deliberate policy focus on welfare distribution would significantly enhance the poverty-reducing impact of growth.