IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v146y2019i3d10.1007_s11205-019-02141-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Subjective Data Improve the Measurement of Inequality? A Multidimensional Index of Economic Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Philipp Poppitz

    (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg)

Abstract

Measuring multidimensional inequality by means of a univariate index requires weighting the dimensions of inequality. This paper explores the normative and empirical problems involved in measuring inequality by estimating hedonic weights on the basis of German microdata. In contrast to previous works, the perception of inequality, derived from subjective social status, has been used to estimate a weighting scheme that includes five dimensions. By aggregating outcomes using a generalized Gini and the hedonic weights, annual multidimensional economic inequality (MDEI) was calculated for the period from 2000 to 2016. The results show that during this period MDEI is significantly higher than when equal weights are used, but lower than income inequality. Until 2006, multidimensional inequality in Germany increased at the same pace as income inequality, but since 2008, the trend of MDEI points downwards if one assumes imperfect substitution between dimensions. The counterfactual decomposition reveals that income contributes to inequality more than any other dimension, but the exceptional reduction in unemployment is the major cause of the decline by the MDEI.

Suggested Citation

  • Philipp Poppitz, 2019. "Can Subjective Data Improve the Measurement of Inequality? A Multidimensional Index of Economic Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 511-531, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:146:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-019-02141-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-019-02141-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-019-02141-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-019-02141-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Danilo Cavapozzi & Wei Han & Raffaele Miniaci, 2015. "Alternative weighting structures for multidimensional poverty assessment," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(3), pages 425-447, September.
    2. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2017. "Wellbeing Inequality and Preference Heterogeneity," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 210-238, April.
    3. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2015. "Happiness, Equivalent Incomes and Respect for Individual Preferences," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1082-1106, December.
    4. Patricia Justino & Bruno Martorano, 2016. "Inequality, Distributive Beliefs and Protests: A Recent Story from Latin America," HiCN Working Papers 218, Households in Conflict Network.
    5. Erik Schokkaert & Luc Van Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2011. "Preferences and Subjective Satisfaction: Measuring Well-being on the Job for Policy Evaluation," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 57(4), pages 683-714, December.
    6. Koen Decancq, 2017. "Erratum to: Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 951-951, June.
    7. AndrewE. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2010. "Who Compares to Whom? The Anatomy of Income Comparisons in Europe," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(544), pages 573-594, May.
    8. Jörn-Steffen Pischke & Till von Wachter, 2008. "Zero Returns to Compulsory Schooling in Germany: Evidence and Interpretation," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 592-598, August.
    9. Koen Decancq & Dirk Neumann, 2014. "Does the Choice of Well-Being Measure Matter Empirically?: An Illustration with German Data," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 717, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    10. Kunze, Lars & Suppa, Nicolai, 2017. "Bowling alone or bowling at all? The effect of unemployment on social participation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 213-235.
    11. Koen Decancq, 2017. "Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1057-1086, April.
    12. Markus M. Grabka & Jan Goebel, 2018. "Einkommensverteilung in Deutschland: Realeinkommen sind seit 1991 gestiegen, aber mehr Menschen beziehen Niedrigeinkommen," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 85(21), pages 449-459.
    13. Koen Decancq & Luc Van Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2013. "What If We Voted on the Weights of a Multidimensional Well‐Being Index? An Illustration with Flemish Data," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 34, pages 315-332, September.
    14. Markus M. Grabka & Jan Goebel & Jürgen Schupp, 2012. "Höhepunkt der Einkommensungleichheit in Deutschland überschritten?," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 79(43), pages 3-15.
    15. Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert & Koen Decancq, 2008. "What Good is Happiness?," OPHI Working Papers 20, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    16. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for growth and distribution," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2138, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. E. Schokkaert & E. Verhofstadt & L. Van Ootegem & -, 2009. "Measuring job quality and job satisfaction," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 09/620, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    18. Philipp Poppitz, 2016. "Does self-perceptions and income inequality match?," IMK Working Paper 173-2016, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    19. Koen Decancq & María Ana Lugo, 2012. "Inequality of Wellbeing: A Multidimensional Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(316), pages 721-746, October.
    20. Decancq, Koen & Decoster, André & Schokkaert, Erik, 2009. "The Evolution of World Inequality in Well-being," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 11-25, January.
    21. Cruces, Guillermo & Perez-Truglia, Ricardo & Tetaz, Martin, 2013. "Biased perceptions of income distribution and preferences for redistribution: Evidence from a survey experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 100-112.
    22. Koen Decancq & María Ana Lugo, 2013. "Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Wellbeing: An Overview," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 7-34, January.
    23. Salvatore Greco & Alessio Ishizaka & Menelaos Tasiou & Gianpiero Torrisi, 2019. "On the Methodological Framework of Composite Indices: A Review of the Issues of Weighting, Aggregation, and Robustness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 141(1), pages 61-94, January.
    24. Ganzeboom, H.B.G. & de Graaf, P.M. & Treiman, D.J. & de Leeuw, J., 1992. "A standard international socio-economic index of occupational status," WORC Paper 92.01.001/1, Tilburg University, Work and Organization Research Centre.
    25. Danny Quah, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers dp0324, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    26. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," CEPR Discussion Papers 1586, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    27. Patricia Justino, 2012. "Multidimensional welfare distributions: empirical application to household panel data from Vietnam," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(26), pages 3391-3405, September.
    28. Weiss, Yoram & Fershtman, Chaim, 1998. "Social status and economic performance:: A survey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 801-820, May.
    29. Amartya Sen, 1997. "Inequality, Unemployment and Contemporary Europe," STICERD - Development Economics Papers - From 2008 this series has been superseded by Economic Organisation and Public Policy Discussion Papers 07, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    30. Luna Bellani, 2013. "Multidimensional indices of deprivation: the introduction of reference groups weights," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(4), pages 495-515, December.
    31. Erik Schokkaert, 2007. "Capabilities and Satisfaction with Life," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 415-430.
    32. Quah, Danny T, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 27-59, March.
    33. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00754447 is not listed on IDEAS
    34. Esfandiar Maasoumi & Tong Xu, 2015. "Weights and substitution degree in multidimensional well-being in China," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 4-19, January.
    35. John Haisken‐DeNew & Mathias Sinning, 2010. "Social Deprivation Of Immigrants In Germany," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(4), pages 715-733, December.
    36. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    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. Antonino Callea & Dalila De Rosa & Giovanni Ferri & Francesca Lipari & Marco Costanzi, 2022. "Can Emotional Intelligence promote Individual Wellbeing and protect from perceptions' traps?," CERBE Working Papers wpC39, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.

    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. Philipp Poppitz, 2017. "Can subjective data improve inequality measurement? A multidimensional index of economic inequality," Working Papers 446, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Koen Decancq & Luc Van Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2013. "What If We Voted on the Weights of a Multidimensional Well‐Being Index? An Illustration with Flemish Data," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 34, pages 315-332, September.
    3. Jesús Peiró-Palomino, 2019. "Regional well-being in the OECD," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(2), pages 195-218, June.
    4. Verity Watson & Chris Dibben & Matt Cox & Iain Atherton & Matt Sutton & Mandy Ryan, 2019. "Testing the Expert Based Weights Used in the UK’s Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Against Three Preference-Based Methods," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 1055-1074, August.
    5. Mark McGillivray & Simon Feeny & Paul Hansen & Stephen Knowles & Franz Ombler, 2023. "What are Valid Weights for the Human Development Index? A Discrete Choice Experiment for the United Kingdom," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 679-694, January.
    6. DECANCQ, Koen & FLEURBAEY, Marc & SCHOKKAERT, Erik, 2014. "Inequality, income, and well-being," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014018, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    7. Rolf Aaberge & Andrea Brandolini, 2014. "Multidimensional poverty and inequality," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 976, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    8. Bart Defloor & Elsy Verhofstadt & Luc Van Ootegem, 2017. "The Influence of Preference Information on Equivalent Income," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 489-507, March.
    9. Leonardo Bonilla Mejía, 2011. "Diferencias regionales en la distribución del ingreso en Colombia," Revista Sociedad y Economía, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE, December.
    10. Haya Al-Ajlani & Luc Ootegem & Elsy Verhofstadt, 2020. "Does Well-Being Vary with an Individual-Specific Weighting Scheme?," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 15(5), pages 1285-1302, November.
    11. Philipp Poppitz, 2019. "Multidimensional Inequality and Divergence: The Eurozone Crisis in Retrospect," Working Papers V-420-19, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Feb 2019.
    12. Gordon Anderson & Oliver Linton & Teng Leo, 2012. "A polarization-cohesion perspective on cross-country convergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 49-69, March.
    13. Lehmann, Hartmut & Silvagni, Maria Giulia, 2013. "Is There Convergence of Russia's Regions? Exploring the Empirical Evidence: 1995–2010," IZA Discussion Papers 7603, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Roberto Ezcurra & Carlos Gil & Pedro Pascual, 2005. "Regional welfare disparities: the case of the European Union," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(12), pages 1423-1437.
    15. Gordon Anderson & Teng Wah Leo & Oliver Linton, 2010. "Making Inferences About Rich Country - Poor Country Convergence: The Polarization Trapezoid and Overlap measures," Working Papers tecipa-387, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    16. Philipp Poppitz, 2016. "Does self-perceptions and income inequality match?," IMK Working Paper 173-2016, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    17. Benito , Juan Miguel & Ezcurra, Roberto, 2004. "Spatial disparities in the European Union: national and sectoral elements," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 4, pages 75-98.
    18. Gianfranco DI VAIO & Michele BATTISTI, 2010. "A Spatially-Filtered Mixture of Beta-Convergence Regression for EU Regions, 1980-2002," Regional and Urban Modeling 284100013, EcoMod.
    19. Sebastian Weber, 2009. "European Financial Market Integration: A Closer Look at Government Bonds in Eurozone Countries," Working Paper / FINESS 1.1b, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    20. Fofack, Hippolyte, 2008. "Technology trap and poverty trap in Sub-Saharan Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4582, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Composite index; Hedonic weights; Perception; Social status;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General

    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:spr:soinre:v:146:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-019-02141-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.