IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lnz/wpaper/20070805.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Construction and Interpretation of Combined Cross-Section and Time-Series Inequality Datasets

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph Francois

    (Johannes Kepler University (Linz))

  • Hugo Rojas-Romagosa

    (CPB (the Hague))

Abstract

The inequality dataset compiled in the 1990s by the World Bank and extended by the UN has been both widely used and strongly criticized. The criticisms raise questions about conclusions drawn from secondary inequality datasets in general. We develop techniques to deal with national and international comparability problems intrinsic to such datasets. The result is a new dataset of consistent inequality series, allowing us to explore problems of measurement error. In addition, the new data allow us to perform parametric non-linear estimation of Lorenz curves from grouped data. This in turn allows us to estimate the entire income distribution, computing alternative inequality indexes and poverty estimates. Finally, we have used our broadly comparable dataset to examine international patterns of inequality and poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph Francois & Hugo Rojas-Romagosa, 2007. "The Construction and Interpretation of Combined Cross-Section and Time-Series Inequality Datasets," IIDE Discussion Papers 20070805, Institue for International and Development Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lnz:wpaper:20070805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.i4ide.org/content/wpaper/dp20070805.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Villasenor, JoseA. & Arnold, Barry C., 1989. "Elliptical Lorenz curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 327-338, February.
    2. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 1997. "What Can New Survey Data Tell Us about Recent Changes in Distribution and Poverty?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 357-382, May.
    3. Dollar, David & Kraay, Aart, 2002. "Growth Is Good for the Poor," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 195-225, September.
    4. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Thai-Thanh Dang & Douglas Fore & Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole & Howard Oxley, 1998. "Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 189, OECD Publishing.
    5. Sarabia, J. -M. & Castillo, Enrique & Slottje, Daniel J., 1999. "An ordered family of Lorenz curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 43-60, July.
    6. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    7. Kakwani, N C & Podder, N, 1973. "On the Estimation of Lorenz Curves from Grouped Observations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(2), pages 278-292, June.
    8. Ravallion, Martin, 2001. "Growth, Inequality and Poverty: Looking Beyond Averages," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1803-1815, November.
    9. Atkinson, A B, 1997. "Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 297-321, March.
    10. A. B. Atkinson, 2003. "Income Inequality in OECD Countries: Data and Explanations," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 49(4), pages 479-513.
    11. Ortega, P, et al, 1991. "A New Functional Form for Estimating Lorenz Curves," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 447-452, December.
    12. Cowell, F.A., 2000. "Measurement of inequality," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 87-166, Elsevier.
    13. Rasche, R H, et al, 1980. "Functional Forms for Estimating the Lorenz Curve: Comment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 1061-1062, May.
    14. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "The World Distribution of Income (estimated from Individual Country Distributions)," NBER Working Papers 8933, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Kakwani, Nanak C & Podder, N, 1976. "Efficient Estimation of the Lorenz Curve and Associated Inequality Measures from Grouped Observations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(1), pages 137-148, January.
    16. Kakwani, Nanak, 1980. "On a Class of Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(2), pages 437-446, March.
    17. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January.
    18. Martin Ravallion & Gaurav Datt & Dominique van de Walle, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty In The Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    19. A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), 2000. "Handbook of Income Distribution," Handbook of Income Distribution, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    20. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1983. "Ranking Income Distributions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 50(197), pages 3-17, February.
    21. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2001. "The disturbing 'rise' of global income inequality," Economics Working Papers 616, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2002.
    22. Atkinson, A.B. & Brandolini, A., 2000. "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of 'Secondary' Data -Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries," Papers 379, Banca Italia - Servizio di Studi.
    23. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    24. P. Ortega & G. Martín & A. Fernández & M. Ladoux & A. García, 1991. "A New Functional Form For Estimating Lorenz Curves," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 447-452, December.
    25. Andrea Brandolini & Anthony B. Atkinson, 2001. "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of "Secondary" Data-Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries As a Case Study," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 771-799, September.
    26. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    27. Datt, Gaurav, 1998. "Computational tools for poverty measurement and analysis," FCND discussion papers 50, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    28. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & van de Walle, Dominique, 1991. "Quantifying Absolute Poverty in the Developing World," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(4), pages 345-361, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean‐Marie Viaene & Itzhak Zilcha, 2009. "Human Capital and Inequality Dynamics: The Role of Education Technology," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(304), pages 760-778, October.
    2. Hugo Rojas-Romagosa & J.F. Francois, 2008. "Reassessing the relationship between inequality and development," CPB Discussion Paper 107.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Francois, J. & Rojas-Romagosa, H., 2004. "Trade Policy and the Household Distribution of Income," Conference papers 331245, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    4. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, 2006. "Growth, inequality, and poverty in Spain, 1850-2000: evidence and speculation," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp06-04, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    5. Guillermo Lezama & Henry Willebald, 2020. "Inequality in Pre‐Income Survey Times: A Methodological Proposal," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 66(4), pages 931-957, December.
    6. Michael A. Nelson & Rajeev K. Goel, 2023. "Spillovers from gender equality onto economic equality: Evidence from 162 nations," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1365-1388, August.
    7. Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, 2007. "Inequality, poverty, and the Kuznets curve In Spain, 1850-2000," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp07-13, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    8. Axel Dreher & Noel Gaston, 2008. "Has Globalization Increased Inequality?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 516-536, August.
    9. Carmen Fillat & Joseph Francois, 2004. "National and international income dispersion and aggregate expenditures," Documentos de Trabajo dt2004-06, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.
    10. Raileanu Szeles, Monica, 2014. "A Multidimensional Approach to the Inclusiveness of economic Growth in the New Member States," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(2), pages 5-24, June.
    11. Martin Gassebner & Noel Gaston & Michael J Lamla, 2008. "Relief For The Environment? The Importance Of An Increasingly Unimportant Industrial Sector," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(2), pages 160-178, April.
    12. Bas van Leeuwen & Peter Foldvari, 2012. "The development of inequality and poverty in Indonesia, 1932-1999," Working Papers 0026, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    13. Thomas Goda, 2013. "Changes in income inequality from a global perspective: An overview," Working Papers PKWP1303, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    14. Hugo Rojas-Romagosa & J.F. Francois, 2008. "Reassessing the relationship between inequality and development," CPB Discussion Paper 107, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Joerg Baten & Peter Foldvari & Bas van Leeuwen, 2011. "The Changing Shape of Global Inequality - exploring a new dataset," Working Papers 0001, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    16. Jan Luiten Zanden & Joerg Baten & Peter Foldvari & Bas Leeuwen, 2014. "The Changing Shape of Global Inequality 1820–2000; Exploring a New Dataset," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 279-297, June.
    17. Rabindra Bhandari & Gyan Pradhan & Mukti Upadhyay, 2010. "Another empirical look at the Kuznets curve," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 3(2), pages 7-19, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "The World Distribution of Income and Income Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1267, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. ZuXiang Wang & Yew-Kwang Ng & Russell Smyth, 2007. "Revisiting The Ordered Family Of Lorenz Curves," Monash Economics Working Papers 19-07, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    3. WANG, Zuxiang & SMYTH, Russell & NG, Yew-Kwang, 2009. "A new ordered family of Lorenz curves with an application to measuring income inequality and poverty in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 218-235, June.
    4. Martino, Gaetano & Polinori, Paolo, 2010. "The individual contribution to income inequality: conceptual analysis and empirical investigation," MPRA Paper 34365, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    6. Martin Ravallion, 2004. "The Debate on Globalization, Poverty and Inequality: why Measurement Matters," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 1, March.
    7. Hugo Rojas-Romagosa & J.F. Francois, 2008. "Reassessing the relationship between inequality and development," CPB Discussion Paper 107, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    8. Florent Bresson, 2010. "A general class of inequality elasticities of poverty," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 71-100, March.
    9. Miguel Sordo & Jorge Navarro & José Sarabia, 2014. "Distorted Lorenz curves: models and comparisons," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(4), pages 761-780, April.
    10. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2006. "The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 351-397.
    11. Sarabia, J. -M. & Castillo, Enrique & Slottje, Daniel J., 1999. "An ordered family of Lorenz curves," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 43-60, July.
    12. Gholamreza Hajargasht & William E. Griffiths, 2016. "Inference for Lorenz Curves," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 2022, The University of Melbourne.
    13. Chotikapanich, Duangkamon & Griffiths, William E, 2002. "Estimating Lorenz Curves Using a Dirichlet Distribution," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(2), pages 290-295, April.
    14. Grabiella Berloffa & Maria Luigia Segnana, 2004. "Trade, inequality and pro-poor growth: Two perspectives, one message?," Department of Economics Working Papers 0408, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    15. ALi Abdel Gadir Ali, "undated". "Poverty in the Arab Region: A Selective Review," API-Working Paper Series 0402, Arab Planning Institute - Kuwait, Information Center.
    16. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "The World Distribution of Income (estimated from Individual Country Distributions)," NBER Working Papers 8933, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Rolf Aaberge & François Bourguignon & Andrea Brandolini & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Janet C. Gornick & John Hills & Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins & Eric Marlier & John Micklewright & Brian Nolan, 2017. "Tony Atkinson and his Legacy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(3), pages 411-444, September.
    18. Rana Hasan & M.G. Quibria & Yangseon Kim, 2003. "Poverty and Economic Freedom: Evidence from Cross-Country Data," Economics Study Area Working Papers 60, East-West Center, Economics Study Area.
    19. Melanie Krause, 2014. "Parametric Lorenz Curves and the Modality of the Income Density Function," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 905-929, December.
    20. Hugo Rojas-Romagosa & J.F. Francois, 2008. "Reassessing the relationship between inequality and development," CPB Discussion Paper 107.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income distribution datasets; inequality trends; Lorenz curve estimation; poverty estimation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:lnz:wpaper:20070805. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: iide webmaster (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/siidenl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.