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Taking prices seriously in the measurement of inequality

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  • Pendakur, Krishna

Abstract

In the measurement of inequality, adjustments for differences across households in their demographic composition and in the price regimes they face are usually very simple. Often, nominal income is adjusted with an income-independent price deflator and a price-independent equivalence scale. I show that using more flexible income-dependent price deflators and price-dependent equivalence scales affects the level of, and trend in, measured consumption inequality in Canada over 1978-1996. Whereas standard methods show a large increase in inequality over the eraly 1980s and a decrease over the mid 1990s, more flexible methods show a smaller increase over the early 1980s and no decrease over the mid 1990s.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Public Economics.

Volume (Year): 86 (2002)
Issue (Month): 1 (October)
Pages: 47-69

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Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:86:y:2002:i:1:p:47-69
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505578

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
  • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
  • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory

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  1. Richard Blundell & Alan Duncan & Krishna Pendakur, 1998. "Semiparametric estimation and consumer demand," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(5), pages 435-461.
  2. Gouveia, Miguel & Tavares, Jose, 1995. "The Distribution of Household Income and Expenditure in Portugal: 1980 and 1990," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 41(1), pages 1-17, March.
  3. Donaldson, D. & Pendakur, K., 1999. "Equivalent-Income Functions and Income-Dependent Equivalence Scales," Discussion Papers dp99-8, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University.
  4. Garry Barrett & Thomas Crossley & Christopher Worswick, 1999. "Consumption and Income Inequality in Australia," CEPR Discussion Papers 404, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
  5. Idson, Todd & Miller, Cynthia, 1999. "Calculating a Price Index for Families with Children: Implications for Measuring Trends in Child Poverty Rates," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(2), pages 217-33, June.
  6. Shelley A. Phipps, 1993. "Measuring Poverty among Canadian Households: Sensitivity to Choice of Measure and Scale," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(1), pages 162-184.
  7. Buhmann, Brigitte, et al, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality, and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates across Ten Countries Using the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(2), pages 115-42, June.
  8. Daniel T. Slesnick, 1998. "Empirical Approaches to the Measurement of Welfare," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 2108-2165, December.
  9. Katz, Arnold J, 1983. "Valuing the Services of Consumer Durables," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 29(4), pages 405-27, December.
  10. Yates, Judith, 1994. "Imputed Rent and Income Distribution," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 40(1), pages 43-66, March.
  11. Richard Blundell & Ian Preston, 1997. "Consumption, inequality and income uncertainty," IFS Working Papers W97/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  12. Pendakur, Krishna, 1998. "Semiparametric estimates and tests of base-independent equivalence scales," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-40, November.
  13. Apps, Patricia & Savage, Elizabeth, 1989. "Labour supply, welfare rankings and the measurement of inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 335-364, August.
  14. Donaldson, David, 1992. "On The Aggregation Of Money Measures Of Well-Being In Applied Welfare Economics," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 17(01), July.
  15. Diewert, W E, 1974. "Intertemporal Consumer Theory and the Demand for Durables," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 42(3), pages 497-516, May.
  16. Smeeding, Timothy M, et al, 1993. "Poverty, Inequality, and Family Living Standards Impacts across Seven Nations: The Effect of Noncash Subsidies for Health, Education and Housing," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 39(3), pages 229-56, September.
  17. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1979. "Welfare Comparisons and Equivalence Scales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 216-21, May.
  18. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
  19. Pashardes, Panos, 1995. "Equivalence scales in a rank-3 demand system," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 143-158, September.
  20. Lancaster, Geoffrey & Ray, Ranjan & Valenzuela, Maria Rebecca, 1999. "A Cross-Country Study of Equivalence Scales and Expenditure Inequality on Unit Record Household Budget Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(4), pages 455-82, December.
  21. King, Mervyn A., 1983. "Welfare analysis of tax reforms using household data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 183-214, July.
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Cited by:

  1. Donaldson, David & Pendakur, Krishna, 2004. "Equivalent-expenditure functions and expenditure-dependent equivalence scales," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1-2), pages 175-208, January.
  2. Holger Dette & Stefan Hoderlein & Natalie Neumeyer, 2013. "Testing Multivariate Economic Restrictions Using Quantiles: The Example of Slutsky Negative Semidefiniteness," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 836, Boston College Department of Economics.
  3. Thomas F. Crossley & Krishna Pendakur, 2006. "The Social Cost-of-Living: Welfare Foundations and Estimation," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 155, McMaster University.
  4. Abhimanyu Dadu & Namrata Gulati, 2014. "Inequality, neighborhoods and variation in prices," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2014-001, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
  5. Lori J. Curtis & JoAnn Kingston-Riechers, 2010. "Implications of the Introduction of the Goods and Services Tax for Families in Canada," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 36(4), pages 503-520, December.
  6. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "Data Issues and Databases Used in Analysis of Growth, Poverty and Economic Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1263, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  7. Arthur Lewbel & Krishna Pendakur, 2009. "Tricks with Hicks: The EASI Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 827-63, June.
  8. Manisha Chakrabarty & Amita Majumder & Ranjan Ray, 2012. "Preferences, Spatial Prices and Inequality," Monash Economics Working Papers 52-12, Monash University, Department of Economics.
  9. Donaldson, David & Pendakur, Krishna, 2010. "Index-Number Tests and the Common-Scaling Social Cost-of-Living Index," Economics working papers david_donaldson-2010-4, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 04 Feb 2010.
  10. Clements, Kenneth W. & Gao, Grace, 2012. "Quality, quantity, spending and prices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 1376-1391.
  11. Krishna Pendakur & Stefan Sperlich, 2010. "Semiparametric estimation of consumer demand systems in real expenditure," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 420-457.
  12. Bergh, Andreas & Nilsson, Therese, 2012. "When More Poor Means Less Poverty: On Income Inequality and Purchasing Power," Working Paper Series 900, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  13. Blacklow, Paul & Nicholas, Aaron & Ray, Ranjan, 2008. "Demographic demand systems with application to equivalence scales estimation and inequality analysis: the Australian evidence," Working Papers 9289, University of Tasmania, School of Economics and Finance, revised 01 Dec 2008.
  14. Lyssiotou, Panayiota, 2008. "Comparisons of poverty across periods: Significance of distributional effects of prices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 14-17, April.
  15. Pendakur, Krishna & Scholz, Michael & Sperlich, Stefan, 2010. "Semiparametric indirect utility and consumer demand," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 2763-2775, November.

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