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| Title: | Inequality and the degree of poverty among public sector workers in Cameroon |
| Author: | Baye, Menjo F. |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Periodical: | The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies |
| Volume: | 40 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 433-452 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Cameroon |
| Subjects: | poverty public sector |
| Abstract: | The economic crisis and its associated policy responses, which included two salary cuts for government employees in 1993, in January and in November, the 50 percent devaluation of the CFA franc on 12 January 1994, and retrenchment in the public service, have introduced a new poverty class in Cameroon made up of public sector workers: civil servants, non-civil servants (state agents, contract workers), retrenched workers, and retired public sector workers. The present study assesses the extent of inequality and the degree of poverty among this new class of the poor, based on data pertaining to 1997. The data reveal a weak case of Lorenz-crossing in the distribution of income among public sector workers. For all practical purposes, however, and as supported by the Gini coefficients, this may well be a case of Lorenz-coincidence. The extent, depth and severity of poverty among public sector workers was found to be statistically less significant for civil servants than for non-civil servants. The cost of poverty eradication in the public sector, assuming perfect targeting, appears to be about 11.5 times lower than in a situation in which the government knows nothing about the poor. Bibliogr., notes, sum. |