Abstract

In Chile, the official figures on income distribution show no significant progress in the last 20 years despite fast economic growth and a significant reduction in poverty. This result is based almost exclusively on one household survey, the Socioeconomic Characterization Survey (CASEN). In this article we challenge the result on income distribution by comparing the micro data from CASEN with the outcomes emanating from the Supplementary Survey of Income (ESI) survey conducted by INE, Chile’s National Statistic Institute. The micro data are available for both surveys since 1990. This paper reviews what has happened in terms of inequality in Chile in the period 1990-2012 and, contrary to the ongoing consensus, finds that important improvements in the income distribution can be shown for this period. Using Gini decompositions, this study shows how central the behaviour of income tied to the richest 1% of the households is, and how both surveys critically differ in the data on the upper end of the distribution. These results are in line with current research on income distribution that focuses on the top percentiles of income.