IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v14y2026i8p348-d2016379.html

Concentrated Post-2020 Sigma Widening: Metric Sensitivity and Persistent Income Hierarchies in Cross-Country GDP per Capita Data

Author

Listed:
  • Zhining Wang

    (Institute for Advanced Studies, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Tsolmon Sodnomdavaa

    (Department of Finance and Economics, Mandakh University, Ulaanbaatar 16061, Mongolia)

Abstract

Post-2020 changes in cross-country log GDP per capita dispersion are directionally consistent across macroeconomic data systems but concentrated in a few country trajectories. Using the IMF WEO 1980–2024 baseline, a provisional 2025 extension, and a 167-country WEO–WDI–PWT panel for 2000–2023, the analysis compares sigma, level inequality, weighting, contributions, mobility, and horizon. Sigma rises by 0.018–0.024 across the sources. Paired country-resampling intervals support sign stability, not broad-based widening. The top five contributors account for 60.3–66.9% of the variance increase and the top ten for 86.6–96.3%; positive residuals remain after joint exclusion. The WEO 2020–2024 increase was exceeded by only two of the 36 preceding four-year changes, although sigma in 2024 remained below its 2000 level. Gini and Theil decline or remain approximately flat, while fixed-quartile separation and persistent ranks locate the change within a durable hierarchy. The contribution is an integrated diagnostic of scale, weighting, concentration, persistence, and horizon; it neither measures global interpersonal inequality nor establishes a structural reversal of long-run convergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhining Wang & Tsolmon Sodnomdavaa, 2026. "Concentrated Post-2020 Sigma Widening: Metric Sensitivity and Persistent Income Hierarchies in Cross-Country GDP per Capita Data," Economies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-24, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:14:y:2026:i:8:p:348-:d:2016379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/14/8/348/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/14/8/348/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jecomi:v:14:y:2026:i:8:p:348-:d:2016379. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.