IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bss/wpaper/13.html

Assessing inequality using percentile shares

Author

Listed:
  • Ben Jann

Abstract

At least since Thomas Piketty's best-selling "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" (2014, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press), percentile shares have become a popular approach for analyzing distributional inequalities. In their work on the development of top incomes, Piketty and collaborators typically report top-percentage shares, using varying percentages as thresholds (top 10%, top 1%, top 0.1%, etc.). However, analysis of percentile shares at other positions in the distribution may also be of interest. In this paper I present a new Stata command called -pshare- that estimates percentile shares from individual-level data and displays the results using histograms or stacked bar charts. A shorter version of this paper has been published in The Stata Journal 16(2): 264-300 (see: http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=st0432).

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Jann, 2015. "Assessing inequality using percentile shares," University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers 13, University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences, revised 27 Oct 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:bss:wpaper:13
    DOI: 10.7892/boris.81523
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://boris-portal.unibe.ch/server/api/core/bitstreams/3c6ca866-5332-428c-af14-eb38d1918d36/content
    File Function: Revised version, 2015
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=st0432
    File Function: Published version, 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.7892/boris.81523?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen P. Jenkins, 1999. "Analysis of income distributions," Stata Technical Bulletin, StataCorp LLC, vol. 8(48).
    2. Thomas Piketty, 2014. "Capital in the Twenty-First Century: a multidimensional approach to the history of capital and social classes," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01157491, HAL.
    3. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(1), pages 3-71, March.
    4. Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2014. "Inequality in the long run," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01053609, HAL.
    5. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053609 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Senia Nhamo & Edinah Mudimu, 2020. "Shifting from deductions to credits: Unpacking the distributional effects of medical expenditure considerations in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-30, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Anand, Ishan & Kumar, Rishabh, 2022. "The sky and the stratosphere: concentrated wealth in India during the ‘lost decade’," SocArXiv 726c8, Center for Open Science.
    3. James B. Davies & Nicole M. Fortin & Thomas Lemieux, 2017. "Wealth inequality: Theory, measurement and decomposition," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(5), pages 1224-1261, December.
    4. Mark C. Strazicich & Peter A. Groothuis & Tiberiu S.V. Ungureanu, 2024. "A Rising Tide Raises all Boats: The changing distribution of salaries in the NBA over time," Working Papers 24-20, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    5. Peñasco, Cristina & Anadón, Laura Díaz, 2023. "Assessing the effectiveness of energy efficiency measures in the residential sector gas consumption through dynamic treatment effects: Evidence from England and Wales," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    6. Anastasios Evgenidis & Apostolos Fasianos, 2021. "Unconventional Monetary Policy and Wealth Inequalities in Great Britain," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(1), pages 115-175, February.
    7. M. Mesut Badur & Md. Monirul Islam & Kazi Sohag, 2023. "Globalization–Income Inequality Nexus in the Post-Soviet Countries: Analysis of Heterogeneous Dataset Using the Quantiles via Moments Approach," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-29, March.
    8. Charles Beach, 2023. "Quantile Tool Box Measures for Empirical Analysis and for Testing Distributional Comparisons in Direct Distribution-Free Fashion," Working Paper 1508, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    9. M. Mesut Badur & Kazi Sohag & Shawkat Hammoudeh & Gazi Salah Uddin, 2023. "Costs of economic growth: new insights on wealth and income inequalities in the post-communist countries," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(8), pages 830-855, November.
    10. Mussa, Richard, 2017. "To Err is Human: Inconsistencies in Food Conversion Factors and Inequality in Malawi," MPRA Paper 75981, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Bornmann, Lutz & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2017. "Skewness of citation impact data and covariates of citation distributions: A large-scale empirical analysis based on Web of Science data," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 164-175.
    12. Gerson Pech & Catarina Delgado, 2020. "Percentile and stochastic-based approach to the comparison of the number of citations of articles indexed in different bibliographic databases," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 123(1), pages 223-252, April.
    13. Oliver Hümbelin, 2016. "Ungleichheit und Umverteilung über das Steuersystem. Eine Analyse der Verteilungseffekte von direkten Steuern und steuerlichen Abzügen mit Steuerdaten des Kantons Aargau (2001-2011)," University of Bern Social Sciences Working Papers 23, University of Bern, Department of Social Sciences.

    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. Emmanuel Saez, 2017. "Income And Wealth Inequality: Evidence And Policy Implications," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(1), pages 7-25, January.
    2. Bertrand Garbinti & Jonathan Goupille-Lebret & Thomas Piketty, 2017. "Income Inequality in France, 1900-2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts," Working Papers 201704, World Inequality Lab.
    3. Christou, Christina & Gupta, Rangan & Jawadi, Fredj, 2021. "Does inequality help in forecasting equity premium in a panel of G7 countries?," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Cowell, Frank A., 2014. "Piketty in the long run," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65992, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Schäfer, Andreas & Prettner, Klaus, 2016. "The fall and rise of inequality," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145806, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Rituparna Sanyal, 2025. "Do Children Play on a Level Playing Field? Measuring Inequality of Opportunity in Bangladesh," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 20(1), pages 81-116, April.
    7. Biewen, Martin & Seckler, Matthias, 2017. "Changes in the German Wage Structure: Unions, Internationalization, Tasks, Firms, and Worker Characteristics," IZA Discussion Papers 10763, IZA Network @ LISER.
    8. Smerlak, Matteo, 2016. "Thermodynamics of inequalities: From precariousness to economic stratification," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 441(C), pages 40-50.
    9. Odusola, Ayodele, "undated". "Fiscal Policy, Redistribution and Inequality in Africa," UNDP Africa Reports 267032, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
    10. Thomas Piketty, 2015. "About Capital in the Twenty-First Century," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 48-53, May.
    11. Kudlyak, Marianna & Faia, Ester & Shabalina, Ekaterina, 2021. "Dynamic Labor Reallocation with Heterogeneous Skills and Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk," CEPR Discussion Papers 16008, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Atanu Ghoshray & Issam Malki & Javier Ordóñez, 2022. "On the long-run dynamics of income and wealth inequality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 375-408, February.
    13. Piketty Thomas, 2015. "Capital, Inequality and Justice: Reflections on Capital in the Twenty-First Century," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 141-156, June.
    14. Giacomo DiPasquale & Matthew Gomies & Javier M. Rodriguez, 2021. "Race and class patterns of income inequality during postrecession periods," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2812-2823, November.
    15. Juan Carlos Muñoz Mora & Marta Reynal-Querol & José García-Montalvo, 2021. "Measuring Inequality from Above," Working Papers 1252, Barcelona School of Economics.
    16. Holger M. Mueller & Paige P. Ouimet & Elena Simintzi, 2015. "Wage Inequality and Firm Growth," LIS Working papers 632, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. Garbinti, Bertrand & Goupille-Lebret, Jonathan & Piketty, Thomas, 2018. "Income inequality in France, 1900–2014: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts (DINA)," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 63-77.
    18. Martin Biewen & Matthias Seckler, 2019. "Unions, Internationalization, Tasks, Firms, and Worker Characteristics: A Detailed Decomposition Analysis of Rising Wage Inequality in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 461-498, December.
    19. David Strauss & Daniel Ventosa-Santaularia, 2023. "Does r-g cause wealth inequality? The case of the United States/¿La r-g causa la desigualdad de la riqueza? El caso de Estados Unidos," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 38(2), pages 183-224.
    20. Huang,Zhangkai & Miao,Meng & Shao,Yi & Xu,L. Colin, 2021. "Warlords, State Failures, and the Rise of Communism in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9754, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C87 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Econometric Software
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:bss:wpaper:13. 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: Ben Jann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sowi.unibe.ch/ .

    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.