Distribución funcional y personal del ingreso en tiempos de pandemia: Chile, Colombia, Perú y México

An evaluation is conducted of the functional and personal distribution of income during the COVID-19 pandemic in four economies, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, between 2019 and 2022. First, the literature on the impacts of pandemics on inequality is reviewed. In terms of functional income distribution, an increase in the share of compensation in Mexico’s GDP is observed, while this share declines in Chile, Colombia, and Peru. For the personal distribution of income, results are reported using different indicators such as the Gini coefficient, the Decile 10 to Decile 1 ratio, the Palma ratio, and the Theil index. These results are consistent for Colombia, but they do not allow a clear trend to be identified for Chile, Mexico, and Peru. For 2019, the evidence shows higher levels of inequality in subgroups linked to the operating surplus, as well as in urban areas and among women in Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. Moreover, when household surveys are used, problems are detected in extrapolated and aggregated results due to the likely underestimation of middle and high incomes in our societies.