Publication
Title
Is informalization equalizing? Evidence from Kinshasa
Author
Abstract
As a consequence of a concatenation of external and internal events, the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has informalized to an unprecedented level over the last few decades. A comparison of budget surveys carried out in 1975 and 2004 respectively allows us to ascertain the effect of this process on income inequality and poverty in Kinshasa. We find that the extent of inequality in the capital city of the DRC has remained largely unchanged, which strongly suggests that informalization has been a viable survival strategy for those at the lower-income end of society. Unexpectedly, whereas distinctions such as gender and age lost much of their profiling power in the period considered, other cleavages such as education and geography, which may be assumed to be much more intimately related to the formal sector, continued to play an important role in structuring inequality in Kinshasas deeply informalized economy.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Journal of contemporary African studies / Africa Institute of South Africa. - Pretoria
Publication
Pretoria : 2018
ISSN
0258-9001
1469-9397 [online]
DOI
10.1080/02589001.2017.1390814
Volume/pages
36 :1 (2018) , p. 121-142
ISI
000430639100008
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 20.12.2017
Last edited 25.05.2022
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