Social Protection and Inequality: Evidence from Ethiopia, India and Peru

Do antipoverty programs reduce inequality? Evidence from Ethiopia,We examine trends of consumption inequality among culturally and socially defined groups in Ethiopia, India and Peru during the period 2006-2016. We find a strong correlation between living standards and social protection program coverage indicating positive targeting efficiency. We also find that inequality among program participants is much lower than non-participants. Second, a decomposition of total inequality shows that within group inequality consistently accounts for a larger share of total inequality for all groups considered.