Inequality in Access to Improved Water Source: A Regional Analysis by Theil Index

Avik Sinha; Siddhartha K. Rastogi

doi:10.4236/tel.2015.56079

Home > Journals > Business & Economics > TEL

Theoretical Economics Letters > Vol.5 No.6, December 2015

Inequality in Access to Improved Water Source: A Regional Analysis by Theil Index ()

Avik Sinha, Siddhartha K. Rastogi

Department of Economics, Indian Institute of Management Indore, Indore, India.

DOI: 10.4236/tel.2015.56079 PDF HTML XML 3,006 Downloads 3,572 Views Citations

Abstract

This study applies Theil’s second measure for looking into inequality in access to improved water source. This index allows inequalities to be broken up within and between groups. An analysis of 188 countries for the period 1990-2012 demonstrates three observations: first, decline in inequality in access to improved water source is characterized by both within-group and between-group inequality elements; second, between-group inequalities are at present the key contributor of the entire inequality scenario; and lastly, an inclusive study on within-group inequalities divulges the significant role played by Central and South American and Middle East countries towards increase in inequalities and countries pertaining to North America, Asia and Oceania, Africa, and Europe towards decline in inequalities.

Keywords

Improved Water Source, Theil Index, Inequality, Decomposition Analysis

Share and Cite:

Sinha, A. and Rastogi, S. (2015) Inequality in Access to Improved Water Source: A Regional Analysis by Theil Index. Theoretical Economics Letters, 5, 683-690. doi: 10.4236/tel.2015.56079.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Bajaj, V. (2012) Crops in India Wilt in a Weak Monsoon Season. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/business/global/drought-in-india-devastates-crops-and-farmers.html
[2]	GoI (2015) https://data.gov.in/
[3]	PIB (2012) Per Capita Water Availability. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=82676
[4]	Google Public Data (2015) Annual Freshwater Withdrawals, Total (% of Internal Resources). http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&ctype=l&met_y= er_h2o_fwtl_zs#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=er_h2o_fwtl_zs&scale_y=lin&ind_y= false&rdim=region&idim=country:IND:USA:AUS:CHN:ARG:ZAF&ifdim=region&hl=en_US&dl= en_US&ind=false
[5]	WSJ (2015) China’s Water Problems Are Even Worse than You Think: Report. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/01/13/chinas-water-problems-are-even-worse-than-you-think-report/
[6]	Global Change (2000) Human Appropriation of the World’s Fresh Water Supply. http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_ supply/freshwater.html
[7]	WFP Network (2015) Water Footprint Statistics (WaterStat). http://waterfootprint.org/en/resources/water-footprint-statistics/
[8]	Bhattacharya, J. and Sinha, A. (2015) Inequality in per Capita Water Availability: A Theil’s Second Measure Approach. Desalination and Water Treatment, 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19443994.2015.1006818
[9]	Hanemann, W.M. (2006) The Economic Conception of Water. In: Rogers, P.P., Llamas, M.R. and Martinez-Cortina, L., Eds., Water Crisis: Myth or Reality? Taylor & Francis, New York, 61-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781439834275.pt2a
[10]	Sullivan, C. (2002) Calculating a Water Poverty Index. World Development, 30, 1195-1210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(02)00035-9
[11]	Lawrence, P., Meigh, J. and Sullivan, C. (2002) The Water Poverty Index: An International Comparison. Keele Economics Research Papers, Kerp 2002/19. www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ec/web/wpapers/kerp0219.pdf
[12]	Theil, H. (1967) Economics and Information Theory. North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam.
[13]	Conceicao, P., Galbraith, J.K. and Bradford, P. (2001) The Theil Index in Sequences of Nested and Hierarchic Grouping Structures: Implications for the Measurement of Inequality through Time, with Data Aggregated at Different Levels of Industrial Classification. Eastern Economic Journal, 27, 491-514.
[14]	Alcantara, V. and Duro, J.A. (2004) Inequality of Energy Intensities across OECD Countries: A Note. Energy Policy, 32, 1257-1260. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0301-4215(03)00095-8
[15]	Akita, T. (2003) Decomposing Regional Income Inequality in China and Indonesia Using Two-Stage Nested Theil Decomposition Method. The Annals of Regional Science, 37, 55-77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s001680200107
[16]	Murray, S.E., Evans, W.N. and Schwab, R.M. (1998) Education-Finance Reform and the Distribution of Education Resources. American Economic Review, 88, 789-812.
[17]	Cowell, F.A. (1985) Multilevel Decomposition of Theil’s Index of Inequality. Review of Income and Wealth, 31, 201-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4991.1985.tb00508.x
[18]	Akita, T., Lukman, R.A. and Yamada, Y. (1999) Inequality in the Distribution of Household Expenditures in Indonesia: A Theil Decomposition Analysis. The Developing Economies, 37, 197-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1049.1999.tb00231.x
[19]	Duro, J.A. and Esteban, J. (1998) Factor Decomposition of Cross-Country Income Inequality, 1960-1990. Economics Letters, 60, 269-275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0165-1765(98)00113-X
[20]	Shannon, C.E. (1951) Prediction and Entropy of Printed English. Bell System Technical Journal, 30, 50-64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1951.tb01366.x
[21]	Shorrocks, A. (1980) The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures. Econometrica, 48, 613-625. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1913126
[22]	Atkinson, A.B. (1970) On the Measurement of Inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, 2, 244-263. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0022-0531(70)90039-6