Spatial and Inter-Temporal Sources of Poverty, Inequality and Gender Disparities in Cameroon: A Regression-Based Decomposition Analysis

Abstract

This study applies the regression-based inequality decomposition technique to explain poverty and inequality trends in Cameroon. We also identify gender related factors which explain income disparities and discrimination based on the 2001 and 2007 Cameroon household consumption surveys. The results show that education, health, employment in the formal sector, age cohorts, household size, gender, ownership of farmland and urban versus rural residence explain household economic well-being; disparities in income inequality between male- and female-headed households are largely explained by education, the share of active household members, employment in the formal sector, household size and health. The study concludes that public interventions which encourage education for all, employment and rural development in Cameroon have some prospects of addressing gender-based inequality in Cameroon.

Keywords: Regression-based decomposition, Poverty, Inequality, Gender and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition

JEL Classification: I30, I32, D39