{"type":"script","doc_desc":{"producers":[{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","abbr":"DECDI","affiliation":"World Bank - Development Impact Department","role":"Verification and preparation of metadata"}],"prod_date":"2026-05-05","version":"1"},"project_desc":{"authoring_entity":[{"name":"Amory Gethin","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"agethin@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Alvin Etang","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"aetangndip@worldbank.org"}],"title_statement":{"title":"Reproducibility package for Measuring Income Inequality And Redistribution In Low-Income Countries: Evidence From Nepal","idno":"RR_NPL_2026_648"},"data_statement":"Some data is restricted and has not been included in the reproducibility package. For more details, please refer to the README file. ","software":[{"name":"Stata","version":"19.0 MP"}],"scripts":[{"title":"Reproducibility package for Measuring Income Inequality And Redistribution In Low-Income Countries: Evidence From Nepal","date":"2026-05","notes":"Computational reproducibility verified by Development Impact (DECDI) Analytics team, World Bank.","instructions":"See README in reproducibility package.","file_name":"RR_NPL_2026_648","zip_package":"RR_NPL_2026_648.zip","dependencies":"Stata dependencies are listed in the ado folder."}],"repository_uri":[{"name":"Reproducible Research Repository (World Bank)","uri":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org"}],"production_date":"2026-05-05","abstract":"Inequality statistics in low-income countries typically rely on consumption data, limiting comparability with income inequality measures used in middle- and high-income countries. This is mainly because measuring the distribution of income is challenging in low-income countries due to the prevalence of informality, misreporting, and conceptual issues. This paper combines rich survey microdata, government budget data, and a novel correction method for the underrepresentation of top incomes to construct pretax and post tax inequality statistics in the context of Nepal. After correcting top incomes and accounting for missing capital income, income inequality in Nepal is 80% higher than consumption inequality, shifting Nepal from being more equal than France to almost as unequal as Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, or Peru. Taxes and transfers have limited impact on inequality due to regressive consumption taxes and poorly targeted social programs. Our income estimates fall close to aggregate output recorded in the national accounts, suggesting that the construction of inequality statistics consistent with macroeconomic growth is feasible even in low-income countries with scarce data. Our methodology only requires a household survey and aggregate tax revenue series by type of tax, making it easily applicable across a wide range of countries.","geographic_units":[{"name":"Nepal","code":"NPL"}],"keywords":[{"name":"Poverty"},{"name":"Inequality"},{"name":"Measurement"}],"topics":[{"id":"D31","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions","parent_id":"D3"},{"id":" E01","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth \u2022 Environmental Accounts","parent_id":"E0"},{"id":" H23","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Externalities \u2022 Redistributive Effects \u2022 Environmental Taxes and Subsidies","parent_id":"H2"},{"id":" H24","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies","parent_id":"H2"},{"id":" H50","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"General","parent_id":"H5"},{"id":" I38","uri":"https:\/\/www.aeaweb.org\/econlit\/jelCodes.php?view=jel","vocabulary":"Journal of Economic Literature (JEL)","name":"Government Policy \u2022 Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs","parent_id":"I3"}],"output":[{"type":"Working Paper","description":"Policy Research Working Papers (PRWP)","title":"Measuring Income Inequality And Redistribution In Low-Income Countries: Evidence From Nepal"}],"language":[{"name":"English","code":"EN"}],"technology_requirements":"Run time: ~ 5 minutes","disclaimer":"The materials in the reproducibility packages are distributed as they were prepared by the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development\/The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this event do not necessarily reflect the views of the World Bank, the Executive Directors of the World Bank, or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the materials included in the reproducibility package.","license":[{"name":"MIT License","uri":"https:\/\/opensource.org\/license\/mit"},{"name":"World Bank IGO Rider","uri":"https:\/\/github.com\/worldbank\/metadata-editor\/blob\/main\/WB-IGO-RIDER.md"}],"contacts":[{"name":"Amory Gethin","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"agethin@worldbank.org"},{"name":"Reproducibility WBG","affiliation":"World Bank","email":"reproducibility@worldbank.org"}],"datasets":[{"name":"Nepal Government Revenue and Expenditure Data","note":"Data accessed in May 2025. Provided directly to the authors by the Government of Nepal. Contains publicly available series on aggregate government revenue and expenditure used in the analysis. File locations: data\/macro\/government-budget.xlsx; data\/macro\/government-revenue.xlsx.","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","citation":"Government of Nepal. 2025. \"Government Budget and Revenue Series\" [dataset]. Unpublished data shared directly by the Government of Nepal. Accessed May 2025."},{"name":"World Inequality Database","note":"Data accessed in May 2025. Series used: per capita national income in PPP USD (anninc999i), total population (npopul999i), deflator (inyixx999i), and PPP conversion factor (xlcusp999i), for all countries in 2022. Data can be downloaded from https:\/\/wid.world\/ or directly in Stata by installing the WID command (ssc install wid) and running: wid, ind(anninc npopul inyixx xlcusp) years(2022) pop(i) ag(999) clear. File location: data\/work\/global-macro.dta.","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","uri":"https:\/\/wid.world\/data\/","citation":"World Inequality Lab. 2025. \"World Inequality Database\" [dataset]. http:\/\/wid.world\/. Accessed May 2025."},{"name":"Global Estimates of Tax-and-Transfer Progressivity","note":"Data accessed in May 2025. Dataset constructed by the authors of Fisher-Post and Gethin (2025). Contains pretax and posttax income by generalized percentile for all countries in 2022 File location: data\/work\/fisher-gethin-redistribution.dta.","access_type":"Data is publicly available and included in the reproducibility package.","uri":"https:\/\/amory-gethin.fr\/data.html","citation":"Fisher-Post, M. and Gethin, A. 2025. \"Government Redistribution and Development: Global Estimates of Tax-and-Transfer Progressivity, 1980\u20132023\" [dataset]. https:\/\/amory-gethin.fr\/data.html. Accessed May 2025."},{"name":"Nepal Living Standards Survey IV, 2022\/2023","note":"Data accessed in May 2025. Available for purchase by contacting the Nepal National Statistics Office at microdata@cbs.gov.np. File location: data\/nlss\/NLSS IV 2022-23\/.","access_type":"Data access was granted directly to the study authors by the data owners\/managers. It was obtained with a custom data license that does not allow for redistribution and it is not included in the reproducibility package.","citation":"National Statistics Office of Nepal. 2025. \"Nepal Living Standards Survey IV, 2022\/2023\" [dataset]. Unpublished data shared directly by  Nepal National Statistics Office. Accessed May 2025."}],"reproduction_instructions":"To reproduce the findings in this paper, a replicator must:\n1. **Secure Access to Data:** Access the datasets not included in the package. See the Datasets section for more details.\n2. **Run the Package:**\n  - Update the working directory in line 14 of the do-file `master`, and run it.\n\nSince all the original data cannot be redistributed, the package includes the outputs produced by the authors, which can be used to review the results presented in the paper.","technology_environment":"Paper exhibits were reproduced on a computer with the following specifications:\n\u2022 OS: Windows 11 Enterprise\n\u2022 Processor: INTEL(R) XEON(R) PLATINUM 8562Y+ (2.80 GHz) (4 processors)\n\u2022 Memory available: 32.0 GB"},"datacite":{"creators":[{"givenName":"Amory","familyName":"Gethin","nameType":"Personal","affiliation":[{"name":"World Bank"}]},{"givenName":"Alvin","familyName":"Etang","nameType":"Personal","affiliation":[{"name":"World Bank"}]}],"titles":[{"lang":"en","title":"Reproducibility package for Measuring Income Inequality And Redistribution In Low-Income Countries: Evidence From Nepal"},{"title":"RR_NPL_2026_648","titleType":"Other"}],"publisher":"World Bank","publicationYear":"2026","types":{"resourceType":"Reproducibility package","resourceTypeGeneral":"Other"},"url":"https:\/\/reproducibility.worldbank.org\/index.php\/catalog\/study\/RR_NPL_2026_648","language":"en"},"tags":[{"tag":"DOI"},{"tag":"Open Code"},{"tag":"Restricted Data"}],"schematype":"script"}