dc.description.abstract | Income inequality has been on the rise and its reduction has been made a key goal for
governments and international development agencies across the World. A key
contributor to income inequality is gender inequality which has a direct relationship to
income inequality; that is, an increase in gender inequality leads to an increase in
income inequality. Gender inequality has also been found to have negative effects on
economic growth and due to its collective negative effects, its reduction is also a key
goal globally. In Africa, both gender and income inequality are high and in addition to
this, the poverty level is also high. Understanding the dynamics of income inequality
and the gender is important since approximately 50 percent of households in Africa are
headed by a woman and gender gaps do not work in their favour.
To determine the level of income inequality in Kenya and to determine whether the
gender of the household head has an influence on it, this study uses the Gini Coefficient
and Shapley-Sharrock Decomposition for estimation. The findings show that the
inequality among Kenyan household is low at 39 percent; gender has a positive but
small contribution to income inequality; and education level of the household head,
location of a household and household size have high contributions to income
inequality in Kenya at 14 percent, 12 percent and 7 percent respectively; and income
inequality is more pronounced in households living in the urban areas households and
in favour of male headed households. This then calls upon welfare policy makers and
implementers to ensure that policies that encourage lower contribution of gender to
inequality are maintained and that policies that encourage rural development with the
aim of reducing rural urban migration are put in place. In addition there is need for
equitable investment and distribution in education. All these welfare policies will aim
at the reduction of income inequality among Kenyan households. | en_US |