Individual Wealth Inequality: Measurement and Evidence from Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Abstract

Wealth accumulation is critical for advancing women's and men's economic opportunities, and yet is understudied in developing countries. Leveraging new, nationally‐representative, cross‐country comparable surveys where men and women self‐reported on their personal asset ownership, we show that individual‐level wealth inequality is significantly higher vis‐à‐vis comparators based on per capita household consumption expenditure, and per capita household wealth. Intra‐household wealth inequality explains about 12–30 percent of overall wealth inequality, depending on the country context. The analysis further demonstrates how survey design choices, in particular respondent selection, matter for individual wealth inequality estimates.