IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/stidar/45.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Income Inequality Comparisons with Dirty Data: The UK and Spain during the 1980s

Author

Listed:
  • Frank A Cowell
  • Julie Litchfield

Abstract

Inequality comparisons between countries and over time should take into account problems of data imperfection. We examine the contrasting experience of the UK and spain during the 1980s in terms of the distribution of disposable income. We consider whether the apparent divergence of inequality could be attributed to deficiencies in income data including under-reporting.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank A Cowell & Julie Litchfield, 1999. "Income Inequality Comparisons with Dirty Data: The UK and Spain during the 1980s," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 45, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:stidar:45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/darp/DARP45.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cowell, Frank & Mercader-Prats, Magda, 1999. "Equivalence scales and inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2190, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Frank A Cowell & Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser, 2001. "Distributional Dominance with Dirty Data," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 51, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    3. Garner, Thesia I. & Ruiz-Castillo, Javier & Sastre, Mercedes, 1999. "The influence of demographic and household specific price indices on expenditure based inequality and welfare: a comparison of Spain and the United States," UC3M Working papers. Economics 6165, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía.
    4. Timothy Smeeding & Gunther Schmaus & Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using the LIS Database," LIS Working papers 17, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Cowell, Frank A & Victoria-Feser, Maria-Pia, 1996. "Robustness Properties of Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 77-101, January.
    6. Richard V. Burkhauser & Timothy M. Smeeding & Joachim Merz, 1996. "Relative Inequality And Poverty In Germany And The United States Using Alternative Equivalence Scales," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(4), pages 381-400, December.
    7. Alissa Goodman & Steven Webb, 1994. "For richer, for poorer: the changing distribution of income in the United Kingdom, 1961-91," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 29-62, November.
    8. Cowell, F.A., 2000. "Measurement of inequality," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 87-166, Elsevier.
    9. Gottschalk, Peter & Smeeding, Timothy M., 2000. "Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, pages 261-307, Elsevier.
    10. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975, Decembrie.
    11. Timothy M. Smeeding & Peter Gottschalk, 1998. "The International Evidence on Income Distribution in Modern Economies: Where Do We Stand?," International Economic Association Series, in: Yair Mundlak (ed.), Contemporary Economic Issues, chapter 3, pages 39-61, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Frank A Cowell, 1998. "Measurement of Inequality (published in Handbook of Income Distribution, A B Atkinson and F Bourguignon (eds), 1998)," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 36, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    13. Frank A Cowell & Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser, 1996. "Welfare Judgements in the Presence Contaminated Data," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 13, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    14. Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater & Guenther Schmaus & Timothy M. Smeeding, 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 115-142, June.
    15. Coulter, Fiona A E & Cowell, Frank A & Jenkins, Stephen P, 1992. "Equivalence Scale Relativities and the Extent of Inequality and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(414), pages 1067-1082, September.
    16. 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 115-142, June.
    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. Elena Bárcena-Martin & Elena Jacques Silber & Yuan Zhang, 2019. "On the measurement of population weighted relative indices of mobility and convergence, with an illustration based on Chinese data," Working Papers 505, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Torregrosa-Hetland, Sara, 2016. "Sticky Income Inequality In The Spanish Transition (1973-1990)," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 34(1), pages 39-80, March.
    3. Timothy Smeeding & Teresa Munzi, 2017. "Conditions of Social Vulnerability, Work and Low Income, Evidence for Spain in Comparative Perspective," LIS Working papers 448, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Jes s Ruiz-Huerta & Luis Ayala & Rosa Martinez, 1999. "Inequality, Growth and Welfare: An International Comparison," LIS Working papers 215, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Thesia I. Garner & Javier Ruiz‐Castillo & Mercedes Sastre, 2003. "The Influence of Demographics and Household‐Specific Price Indices on Consumption‐Based Inequality and Welfare: A Comparison of Spain and the United States," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 70(1), pages 22-48, July.
    6. E. Bárcena-Martín & A. I. Moro-Egido & S. Pérez-Moreno, 2016. "How Income Growth Differs with Children in Spain: a Comparative European Perspective," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(2), pages 357-370, June.
    7. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & Brian McCaig, 2017. "Growth with equity: income inequality in Vietnam, 2002–14," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(1), pages 25-46, March.
    8. Khor, Niny & Pencavel, John, 2008. "Measuring Income Mobility, Income Inequality, and Social Welfare for Households of the People’s Republic of China," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 145, Asian Development Bank.
    9. Nelson R. Ramírez- Rondán & Marco E. Terrones & Diego Winkelried, 2020. "Equalizing growth: The case of Peru," Working Papers 176, Peruvian Economic Association.

    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. Stefan Kranzinger, 2020. "The decomposition of income inequality in the EU-28," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 643-668, August.
    2. Cowell, Frank A. & Victoria-Feser, Maria-Pia, 2006. "Distributional Dominance With Trimmed Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 24, pages 291-300, July.
    3. Salvatore Morelli & Timothy Smeeding & Jeffrey Thompson, 2014. "Post-1970 Trends in Within-Country Inequality and Poverty: Rich and Middle Income Countries," CSEF Working Papers 356, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    4. Frank A Cowell & Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser, 2001. "Distributional Dominance with Dirty Data," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 51, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    5. Cem Baslevent & Meltem Dayoglu, 2005. "The Effect of Squatter Housing on Income Distribution in Urban Turkey," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(1), pages 31-45, January.
    6. Lars Osberg, 2002. "How Much does Work Matter for Inequality? Time, Money and Inequality in International Perspective," LIS Working papers 326, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Pogorelskiy, Kirill & Seidl, Christian & Traub, Stefan, 2010. "Tax progression: International and intertemporal comparison using LIS data," Economics Working Papers 2010-08, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    8. John Creedy & Cath Sleeman, 2005. "Adult equivalence scales, inequality and poverty," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 51-81.
    9. Núñez Velázquez, José Javier, 2009. "Estado actual y nuevas aproximaciones a la medición de la pobreza/Current Status and New Approaches to the Measurement of Poverty," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 27, pages 325-346, Agosto.
    10. Gordon Anderson, 2003. "Poverty in America 1970-1990: who did gain ground? An application of stochastic dominance criteria employing simultaneous inequality tests in a partial panel," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(6), pages 621-640.
    11. Coral del Río & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2001. "TIPs for poverty analysis. The case of Spain, 1980-81 to 1990-91," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 25(1), pages 63-91, January.
    12. Lahoti Rahul & Jayadev Arjun & Reddy Sanjay, 2016. "The Global Consumption and Income Project (GCIP): An Overview," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 61-108, June.
    13. Kuypers, Sarah & Marx, Ive, 2016. "Estimation of Joint Income? Wealth Poverty: A Sensitivity Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 10391, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Hillringhaus, Tilman & Peichl, Andreas, 2010. "Die Messung von Armut unter Berücksichtigung regional divergierender Lebenshaltungskosten und öffentlicher Leistungen," IZA Discussion Papers 5344, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Schröder, Carsten & Bönke, Timm, 2012. "Country inequality rankings and conversion schemes," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 6, pages 1-43.
    16. Mysikova, Martina & Zelinsky, Tomas, 2019. "On the Measurement of the Income Poverty Rate: the Equivalence Scale across Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 99(4), pages 383-397.
    17. Sarah Kuypers & Ive Marx, 2018. "Estimation of Joint Income-Wealth Poverty: A Sensitivity Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 117-137, February.
    18. Regier, Gregory & Zereyesus, Yacob & Dalton, Timothy & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2015. "Do Adult Equivalence Scales Matter in Poverty Estimates? A Ghana Case Study," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212487, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2004. "Migration, poverty, and housing in Honduras," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 31(1 Year 20), pages 5-20, June.
    20. Christos Koulovatianos & Carsten Schröder, 2023. "Income-dependent equivalence scales and choice theory: implications for poverty measurement," Chapters, in: Jacques Silber (ed.), Research Handbook on Measuring Poverty and Deprivation, chapter 4, pages 39-49, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lorenz dominance; data contamination; cross-country comparisons.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:cep:stidar:45. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/ .

    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.