Review of income distribution data : Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria

First, existing studies of income distribution will be surveyed. Secondly, there will be an appraisal of data availability for future income distribution studies. Lastly, some indications will be given as to desirable areas of emphasis in future studies of income distribution problems in these countries. The unfortunate yet inevitable conclusions of this exercise are that: (1) to date, studies of income distribution in these countries have been thin on the ground; (2) in the few analyses that exist, size distribution has received very scant attention; (3) data availability is not very encouraging, especially in the two East African countries; (4) in most respects, long time-series data are hard to come by, and where they exist the time span covers less than fifteen years; (5) even though the differences between the traditional and modern sectors are all too visible in these countries, existing statistics are not easily divided along these lines for income distribution purposes; and (6) much of future research activities must be oriented toward generating the required distributional data.