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Has the Income Share of the Middle and Upper-middle Been Stable around the ‘50/50 Rule’, or Has it Converged towards that Level? The ‘Palma Ratio’ Revisited

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  • José Gabriel Palma

Abstract

type="main"> In an article published in this journal in 2011, an alternative measure of inequality was suggested, which has subsequently become known as ‘the Palma Ratio’. In this new article, the author of the original proposal revisits the argument for such a measure. Using new data, he examines whether the current remarkable homogeneity in the income share of the middle and upper-middle around the world — the foundation of the so-called ‘Palma Ratio’ — is an historically stable stylized fact, or whether it is a new phenomenon, the outcome of a process of convergence towards the current ‘50/50 Rule’ (in which half of the population in each country located within deciles 5 to 9 tends to appropriate about 50 per cent of the national income, or just above). Although partly written in response to a comment on the 2011 paper (published in this issue), the article also makes a substantive further contribution to the literature on inequality and the statistics to measure it.

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  • José Gabriel Palma, 2014. "Has the Income Share of the Middle and Upper-middle Been Stable around the ‘50/50 Rule’, or Has it Converged towards that Level? The ‘Palma Ratio’ Revisited," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(6), pages 1416-1448, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:6:p:1416-1448
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    2. Nicolás Valenzuela‐Levi, 2020. "Waste Political Settlements in Colombia and Chile: Power, Inequality and Informality in Recycling," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(4), pages 1098-1122, July.
    3. Collin Constantine, 2022. "Income Inequality in Guyana: Class or Ethnicity? New Evidence from Survey Data," Working Papers 631, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    4. Arief Anshory Yusuf & Peter Warr, 2018. "Anti-globalisation, poverty and inequality in Indonesia," Departmental Working Papers 2018-03, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    5. Emine TAHSİN, 2019. "An Investigation of the Palma Ratio for Turkey Both on National and Regional Level," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 27(41).
    6. Lourdes ROJAS RUBIO, 2022. "Inequality, Corruption and Support for Democracy," THEMA Working Papers 2022-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    7. Alex Cobham & Luke Schlogl & Andy Sumner, 2015. "Inequality and the tails: The Palma proposition and ratio revised," Working Papers 366, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. García-García, Pablo & Buendía, Luis & Carpintero, Óscar, 2022. "Welfare regimes as enablers of just energy transitions: Revisiting and testing the hypothesis of synergy for Europe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    9. Valenzuela-Levi, Nicolás, 2021. "The rich and mobility: A new look into the impacts of income inequality on household transport expenditures," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 161-171.
    10. Clément, Matthieu & Rougier, Eric & Berrou, Jean-Philippe & Combarnous, François & Darbon, Dominique, 2022. "“What’s in the middle”: Scratching beneath the surface of the middle class(es) in Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Turkey and Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Tomás, Manuel & García-Muros, Xaquín & Alonso-Epelde, Eva & Arto, Iñaki & Rodríguez-Zúñiga, Alejandro & Monge, Cristina & González-Eguino, Mikel, 2023. "Ensuring a just energy transition: A distributional analysis of diesel tax reform in Spain with stakeholder engagement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    12. Petra Sauer & Narasimha D. Rao & Shonali Pachauri, 2020. "Explaining income inequality trends: An integrated approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-65, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Tahsin, Emine, 2019. "Concentration of income inequality on the basis of Palma ratio and income deciles of Turkey on national and regional level," MPRA Paper 92490, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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