Income Inequality and Well-Being

Abstract

Income is very unequally distributed in Latin America; in fact, the data shows that the region is the most unequal one in the world. There are different ways in which income inequality impacts on people’s well-being. A gap in well-being is observed between the top and bottom income quintiles in most Latin American countries and this greater sense of unfairness in Latin America which reduces people’s well-being. Other drivers of well-being do show a more egalitarian distribution across the Latin American population.