IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rug/rugwps/04-252.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Income Inequality Data in Growth Empirics: From Cross-Sections to Time Series

Author

Listed:
  • N. GOBBIN
  • G. RAYP

Abstract

As in any other field of applied macro-economic or econometric research, researchers who study income inequality have to look for suitable data. Although most researchers just draw on some ready-made dataset, finding reliable data is not that straightforward and can even be very troublesome. This paper highlights some of the pitfalls in the use of inequality data. We deal with sampling problems, the choice of equivalence scale, one dimensional inequality measures, etc. We also introduce and describe a new secondary dataset on inequality data for a number of OECD countries. The main innovation of the dataset is that it creates the possibility to perform a time series analysis on inequality data. The data bring to the fore an additional problem: non-stationary behaviour of inequality series.

Suggested Citation

  • N. Gobbin & G. Rayp, 2004. "Income Inequality Data in Growth Empirics: From Cross-Sections to Time Series," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 04/252, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    • Handle: RePEc:rug:rugwps:04/252
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wps-feb.ugent.be/Papers/wp_04_252.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Browning & Pierre-André Chiappori & Arthur Lewbel, 2013. "Estimating Consumption Economies of Scale, Adult Equivalence Scales, and Household Bargaining Power," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 80(4), pages 1267-1303.
    2. Angus Deaton, 2005. "Measuring Poverty in a Growing World (or Measuring Growth in a Poor World)," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Stephen P. Jenkins & Philippe Van Kerm, 2006. "Trends in income inequality, pro-poor income growth, and income mobility," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(3), pages 531-548, July.
    4. Jan Hanousek & Dana Hajkova & Randall K. Filer, 2004. "The Other Side of the Moon: The Data Problem in Analyzing Growth Determinants," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2004-682, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    5. Niko Gobbin & Glenn Rayp, 2004. "Inequality and Growth: Does Time Change Anything," Development and Comp Systems 0402005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Mats Johansson & Bjorn Gustafsson, 1997. "In Search for a Smoking Gun: What Makes Income Inequality Vary Over Time in Different Countries?," LIS Working papers 172, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. 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.
    8. Albert Berry & John Serieux, 2003. "All About the Giants: Probing the Influences on Growth and Income Inequality at the End of the 20th Century," CESifo Working Paper Series 840, CESifo.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lahoti Rahul & Jayadev Arjun & Reddy Sanjay, 2016. "The Global Consumption and Income Project (GCIP): An Overview," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 61-108, June.
    2. Niko Gobbin & Glenn Rayp & Dirk Van de gaer, 2007. "Inequality And Growth: From Micro Theory To Macro Empirics," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(4), pages 508-530, September.
    3. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2005. "Are Public and Private Social Expenditures Complementary?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 11(2), pages 175-189, May.
    4. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard, 2001. "International Trends in Income Inequality and Social Policy," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 395-415, August.
    5. Thomas Goda & Santiago Sanchez, 2018. "Market and Disposable Top Income Shares adjusted by National Accounts Data," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 26(2), pages 1-22, July.
    6. Francesco Farina, 2016. "The Path Dependency of Poverty Reduction Policies," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(1), pages 21-42.
    7. Clare Leaver & Paul Segal, 2014. "The Global Distribution of Income," Economics Series Working Papers 714, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Thomas Goda, 2013. "Changes in income inequality from a global perspective: An overview," Working Papers PKWP1303, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    9. Catherine Sofer & Natalia Radtchenko & Ekaterina Kalugina, 2008. "Une analyse du partage intra familial du revenu à partir de données subjectives," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 186(5), pages 101-116.
    10. Olivier Bargain & Prudence Kwenda & Miracle Ntuli, 2017. "Gender bias and the intrahousehold distribution of resources: Evidence from African nuclear households in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series 071, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Angela Daley & Thesia I. Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across Place and Time in Household Expenditure Patterns: Implications for the Estimation of Equivalence Scales," Economic Working Papers 520, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    12. Oded Stark & Franz Rendl & Marcin Jakubek, 2012. "The merger of populations, the incidence of marriages, and aggregate unhappiness," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 331-344, April.
    13. Elizabeth Jane Casabianca, 2012. "Distributional effects of preferential and multilateral trade liberalization: the case of Paraguay," FIW Working Paper series 083, FIW.
    14. Xiangdan Piao, 2023. "Intra-Household Income Management and Couple’s Relative Sharing of Income and Environment Sustainability in Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-17, April.
    15. Alessandro Olper & Johan Swinnen, 2013. "Mass Media and Public Policy: Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 27(3), pages 413-436.
    16. Alvaredo, Facundo & Bourguignon, François & Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Lustig, Nora, 2023. "Seventy-five years of measuring income inequality in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120557, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Picarelli, Nathalie, 2016. "Who really benefits from export processing zones? Evidence from Nicaraguan municipalities," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 318-332.
    18. Stephen P. Jenkins & Philippe Van Kerm, 2016. "Assessing Individual Income Growth," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(332), pages 679-703, October.
    19. B. Essama‐Nssah & Peter J. Lambert, 2009. "Measuring Pro‐Poorness: A Unifying Approach With New Results," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(3), pages 752-778, September.
    20. Charles Meth, 2006. "What was the poverty headcount in 2004 and how does it compare to recent estimates by van der Berg et al?," SALDRU Working Papers 1, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
    • 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:rug:rugwps:04/252. 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: Nathalie Verhaeghe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugbe.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.