Dymanics of Inequality in Child Undernutrition in Ethiopia

Mengesha Yayo Negasi, AddisAbaba Science and Technology University

This study provides new evidence on child undernutrition inequalities in Ethiopia using longitudinal perspective. Using three round of household panel survey, we use concentration index (associated curve), different mobility index approaches for measuring inequalities and its dynamics, and decomposition method to identify contributing factors. In all concentration index computing approaches and Socioeconomic Status (SES) ranking variables, the concentration indices are significant with negative value. This implies that in either of short-run or long-run inequality estimates, the burden of unequal distribution of undernutrition remains on the poor with significant difference across regions. With respect to dynamics of inequalities, results on mobility indices computed based on Allanson et al. (2010) approach show that inequality remain stable (persistence of inequality) in Height-for- age Z-score, and reduction of inequality in Weight-forage Z-score Our inequality results are robust to different measurement scale, inequality aversion parameters/distributional sensitivity parameters, and sensitivity to extremity.