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Efficient minimum distance estimation of Pareto exponent from top income shares

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  • Alexis Akira Toda
  • Yulong Wang

Abstract

We propose an efficient estimation method for the income Pareto exponent when only certain top income shares are observable. Our estimator is based on the asymptotic theory of weighted sums of order statistics and the efficient minimum distance estimator. Simulations show that our estimator has excellent finite‐sample properties. We apply our estimation method to US top income share data and find that the Pareto exponent has been ranging between 1.4 and 1.8 since 1985, suggesting that the rise in inequality during the last three decades is mainly driven by redistribution between the rich and poor, not among the rich.

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  • Alexis Akira Toda & Yulong Wang, 2021. "Efficient minimum distance estimation of Pareto exponent from top income shares," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 228-243, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:japmet:v:36:y:2021:i:2:p:228-243
    DOI: 10.1002/jae.2788
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    Cited by:

    1. Yulong Wang & Zhijie Xiao, 2020. "Estimation and Inference about Tail Features with Tail Censored Data," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 994, Boston College Department of Economics.
    2. Tjeerd de Vries & Alexis Akira Toda, 2022. "Capital and Labor Income Pareto Exponents Across Time and Space," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(4), pages 1058-1078, December.
    3. Alexis Akira Toda & Yulong Wang, 2021. "Efficient minimum distance estimation of Pareto exponent from top income shares," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 228-243, March.
    4. Ji Hyung Lee & Yuya Sasaki & Alexis Akira Toda & Yulong Wang, 2022. "Capital and Labor Income Pareto Exponents in the United States, 1916-2019," Papers 2206.04257, arXiv.org.
    5. Ji Hyung Lee & Yuya Sasaki & Alexis Akira Toda & Yulong Wang, 2021. "Fixed-k Tail Regression: New Evidence on Tax and Wealth Inequality from Forbes 400," Papers 2105.10007, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    6. Rustam Ibragimov & Paul Kattuman & Anton Skrobotov, 2021. "Robust Inference on Income Inequality: $t$-Statistic Based Approaches," Papers 2105.05335, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2021.

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