The Distribution of Income in Underdeveloped Countries

Abstract

The study of the phenomena of income distribution in under-developed countries encounters difficulties of a conceptual and statistical order to which attention must be drawn at the outset. The concept of income, already diversely construed in the developed countries, gives rise to a still greater variety of interpretations in regard to more backward countries. There is not one standard notion of income but several varieties. The results will be different, according to whether the individual or the family is taken as the unit of production and consumption and whether or not account is taken of non-monetary incomes (i.e. in kind), the proportion of which is far from negligible in a subsistence economy. Likewise, the geographical partitioning of territory in the underdeveloped areas adds still further hazards to any attempt to ascertain individual incomes, so great is the diversity of mentalities and attitudes even within the rural areas. The tasks performed by women, the size of the family unit, the differences in the monetary remuneration of services are so many factors which often render it useless to try to isolate personal income, for it is found to cover activities and services of a totally different nature.