Evaluating the Income Redistribution Policies (Comparative Case Study: Egypt – Latin America)

Abstract

Ingy Gamal Mohamed Ragab, Evaluating the Income Redistribution Policies (Comparative Case Study: Egypt-Latin America), PhD, Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, Economics Department, 2014.

Achieving high rates of economic growth is one of the objectives of both developed and developing countries. For these rates to be meaningful to the people, they must be fairly distributed among the members of the society. In order to achieve their aim, governments use the fiscal policy tools such as taxes, subsidies, and public expenditures on health and education. Latin American countries are considered to have the highest inequality measures worldwide, and by studying the income redistribution policies adopted, it has been found that they were ineffective in reducing the Gini coefficient. Besides, the same policies did not achieve their aim in targeting inequality in Egypt, where only the Gini coefficient was reduced slightly. By the end of the 1990s, the Latin American countries adopted the Conditional Cash Transfer Programs, which succeeded, for the first time, to reduce the Gini coefficient. By testing these programs for Egypt, it has been concluded that Egypt has the requirements that will enable it to adopt the same programs and thus reduces inequality.