The North African countries and the Arab spring: a different perspective of inequality

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the economic landscape of North African countries during the Arab Spring through the lens of polarization, offering an alternative perspective to traditional inequality measures. While conventional indices suggest stable or declining inequality in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, polarization metrics reveal a deepening socioeconomic divide. Using the Forster–Wolfson Index, the Duclos–Esteban–Ray Index and the relative distribution method, this study highlights increasing polarization, particularly at the lower tail of the distribution. The findings suggest that economic bifurcation, rather than inequality per se, played a crucial role in fueling social unrest during the Arab Spring.