Income Inequality and Socio-Political Instability in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the impact of income inequality on Socio-Political Instability (hereinafter SPI) in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2018 with a sample of 47 countries. We first present the theoretical and empirical debate on income inequality and SPI. This literature review allows us tomeasure SPI using the principal component analysis method and hierarchical clustering and partitioning to analyse the similarities and differences between countries from a multidimensional perspective. We then estimate the SPI concerning income inequality and democracy. The findings are that assassinations are not linked to a regime’s duration, and the duration of a regime reduces if coups d’état (successful or not) are rampant. Between democracy and income inequality, the former has 34 times more impact on SPI. GDP growth increases SPI and education reduces SPI.

Keywords

• income inequality
• democracy
• socio-political instability
• political regime
• sub-saharan african countries