IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ses/arsjes/1994-iii-15.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income Distribution, Income Inequality and Life Cycle Effects - A Nonparametric Analysis for Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Gerfin

Abstract

This paper illustrates the use of nonparametric estimation techniques in the analysis of income distribution and income inequality with focus on identifying life cycle effects. I consider kernel estimates of the univariate income density and of the bivariate incomeage density. The income-age relationship is also explored by using kernel regression. It turns out that there is a strong concave relation. To analyze the degree of inequality I estimate age-conditional inequality measures nonparametrically. Employing inequality indices belonging to the class of General Entropy measures, which are additively decomposable by population subgroups, allows to compare the results with the traditional approach. It turns out that there is hardly any difference. About 12-15% of total inequality can be attributed to life cycle effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Gerfin, 1994. "Income Distribution, Income Inequality and Life Cycle Effects - A Nonparametric Analysis for Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 130(III), pages 509-522, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:1994-iii-15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sjes.ch/papers/1994-III-15.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lars Osberg, 1998. "Economic Insecurity," Discussion Papers 0088, University of New South Wales, Social Policy Research Centre.
    2. Michael Gerfin, 1994. "Income Distribution, Income Inequality and Life Cycle Effects - A Nonparametric Analysis for Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 130(III), pages 509-522, September.
    3. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    4. Paglin, Morton, 1975. "The Measurement and Trend of Inequality: A Basic Revision," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(4), pages 598-609, September.
    5. Jenkins, S., 1988. "The Measurement Of Economic Inequality," Papers 170, Australian National University - Department of Economics.
    6. Pudney, Stephen, 1993. "Income and Wealth Inequality and the Life Cycle: A Non-parametric Analysis for China," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(3), pages 249-276, July-Sept.
    7. Wolfgang HAERDLE & Marlene MUELLER, "undated". "Applied nonparametric smoothing techniques," Statistic und Oekonometrie 9303, Humboldt Universitaet Berlin.
    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. Fernández Sánchez, Mª.P. & Hernández Bastida, A. & Sánchez González, C., 2004. "Análisis de los ingresos y gastos trimestrales de los hogares españoles usando la Verosimilitud empírica”1/Analysing Spanish Income and Expenditure Through Empirical Likelihood," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 22, pages 139-150, Abril.
    2. Patrick A. Puhani, 2005. "Relative Supply and Demand for Skills in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 141(IV), pages 555-584, December.
    3. Michael Gerfin, 1994. "Income Distribution, Income Inequality and Life Cycle Effects - A Nonparametric Analysis for Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 130(III), pages 509-522, September.
    4. Florian Zainhofer, 2007. "Life Cycle Portfolio Choice: A Swiss Perspective," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 143(II), pages 187-238, June.
    5. Nadja El Benni & Robert Finger & Stefan Mann & Bernard Lehmann, 2012. "The distributional effects of agricultural policy reforms in Switzerland," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 58(11), pages 497-509.

    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. El-Osta, Hisham S. & Morehart, Mitchell J., 2009. "Welfare Decomposition in the Context of the Life Cycle of Farm Operators: What Does a National Survey Reveal?," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 38(2), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Essama-Nssah, B., 2002. "Assessing the distributional impact of public policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2883, The World Bank.
    3. Galen J. Countryman, 1999. "The Effect of Unemployment Insurance Benefits on Income Inequality in the Canadian Provinces," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 25(4), pages 539-556, December.
    4. Thomas Hoehn & Marc Reichle, 1986. "Einkommensdisparitäten im Zentren-Peripherie-Kontext in der Schweiz," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 122(II), pages 143-161, June.
    5. Camacho Cuena, Eva & Neugebauer, Tibor & Seidl, Christian, 2005. "Compensating justice beats leaky buckets: an experimental investigation," Economics Working Papers 2005-06, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    6. Davies, James B. & Hoy, Michael, 2002. "Flat rate taxes and inequality measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 33-46, April.
    7. Ingvild Almås & Magne Mogstad, 2009. "Older or Wealthier? The Impact of Age Adjustments on the Wealth Inequality Ranking of Countries," Discussion Papers 583, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    8. Rohde, Nicholas & Tang, Kam Ki & D’Ambrosio, Conchita & Osberg, Lars & Rao, Prasada, 2020. "Welfare-based income insecurity in the us and germany: evidence from harmonized panel data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 226-243.
    9. Alan S. Blinder & Irving Kristol & Wilbur J. Cohen, 1980. "The Level and Distribution of Economic Well-Being," NBER Chapters, in: The American Economy in Transition, pages 415-500, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Frank Cowell & Emmanuel Flachaire & Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, 2013. "Reference distributions and inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(4), pages 421-437, December.
    11. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2013. "Measuring Economic Insecurity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(3), pages 1017-1030, August.
    12. Gilles Saint-Paul, 2001. "The Dynamics of Exclusion and Fiscal Conservatism," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(2), pages 275-302, April.
    13. Rafael De Hoyos, 2012. "Accounting for Mexican Income Inequality During the 1990s," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 21(3-4), pages 103-125, November.
    14. Heisz, Andrew, 2007. "Inegalite et redistribution du revenu au Canada : 1976 a 2004," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2007298f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    15. Dean R. Hyslop & David C. Maré, 2003. "Understanding New Zealand's Changing Income Distribution 1983-98: A Semiparametric Analysis," Working Papers 03_16, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    16. Lars Osberg, 2003. "Long Run Trends in Income Inequality in the United States, UK, Sweden, Germany and Canada: A Birth Cohort View," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 121-141, Winter.
    17. R. D. Plotnick & E. Smolensky & E. Evenhouse & S. Reilly, "undated". "The Twentieth Century Record of Inequality and Poverty in the United States," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1166-98, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    18. Rukwid, Ralf, 2007. "Arbeitslosigkeit und Lohnspreizung - Empirische Befunde zur Arbeitsmarktsituation gering Qualifizierter in Deutschland," Violette Reihe: Schriftenreihe des Promotionsschwerpunkts "Globalisierung und Beschäftigung" 24/2007, University of Hohenheim, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Evangelisches Studienwerk.
    19. Fräßdorf, Anna & Grabka, Markus M. & Schwarze, Johannes, 2008. "The Impact of Household Capital Income on Income Inequality: A Factor Decomposition Analysis for Great Britain, Germany and the USA," IZA Discussion Papers 3492, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Steven G. Prus, 1999. "Income Inequality as a Canadian Cohort Ages: An Analysis of the Later Life Course," Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers 10, McMaster University.

    More about this item

    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:ses:arsjes:1994-iii-15. 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: Kurt Schmidheiny (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sgvssea.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.