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What has been happening to UK income inequality since the mid-1990s? Answers from reconciled and combined household survey and tax return data

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  • Burkhauser, Richard V.
  • Hérault, Nicolas
  • Jenkins, Stephen P.
  • Wilkins, Roger

Abstract

Estimates of UK income inequality trends differ substantially according to whether estimates are based on household survey data (used for official statistics) or tax return data (used in the top incomes literature). We reconcile differences in variable definitions and combine survey and tax return data in order to take advantage of the much better coverage of top incomes in the latter, and provide improved estimates of UK inequality trends since the mid-1990s. We show there was a marked increase in income inequality in the early 2000s that survey-based estimates do not reveal, and our conclusions are robust to changes in the definitions of income, income-sharing unit, and summary inequality measure. In addition, our reconciled and combined data provide more comparable estimates of UK-US inequality trends than the top incomes literature to date.

Suggested Citation

  • Burkhauser, Richard V. & Hérault, Nicolas & Jenkins, Stephen P. & Wilkins, Roger, 2016. "What has been happening to UK income inequality since the mid-1990s? Answers from reconciled and combined household survey and tax return data," ISER Working Paper Series 2016-03, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2016-03
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
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    4. Philip Armour & Richard V. Burkhauser & Jeff Larrimore, 2013. "Deconstructing Income and Income Inequality Measures: A Crosswalk from Market Income to Comprehensive Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 173-177, May.
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    11. Philip Armour & Richard V. Burkhauser & Jeff Larrimore, 2014. "Levels and Trends in U.S. Income and its Distribution: A Crosswalk from Market Income towards a Comprehensive Haig-Simons Income Approach," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 271-293, October.
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. What Has Been Happening to UK Income Inequality since the Mid-1990s? Answers from Reconciled and Combined Household Survey and Tax Return Data
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2016-03-01 18:11:50
    2. Inequality and poverty
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2018-04-03 12:54:55

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    Cited by:

    1. Marcelo Medeiros & Juliana Castro Galvão & Luísa Azevedo Nazareno, 2018. "Correcting the Underestimation of Top Incomes: Combining Data from Income Tax Reports and the Brazilian 2010 Census," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 233-244, January.
    2. Pawel Bukowski & Filip Novokmet, 2019. "Between Communism and Capitalism: Long-Term Inequality in Poland, 1892-2015," CEP Discussion Papers dp1628, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Metzing, Maria & Bartels, Charlotte, 2016. "An integrated approach for top-corrected Ginis," Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145818, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Brian A'Hearn & Nicola Amendola & Giovanni Vecchi, 2016. "On Historical Household Budgets," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 137-176.
    5. A. B. Atkinson, 2017. "Pareto and the Upper Tail of the Income Distribution in the UK: 1799 to the Present," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 129-156, April.
    6. Francesco Olivanti, 2018. "Standard Budgets in Spanish Economic History: a User’s Guide to Sources and Methods," HHB Working Papers Series 10, The Historical Household Budgets Project.
    7. Chris Belfield & Richard Blundell & Jonathan Cribb & Andrew Hood & Robert Joyce, 2017. "Two Decades of Income Inequality in Britain: The Role of Wages, Household Earnings and Redistribution," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 157-179, April.
    8. Stephen P. Jenkins, 2017. "Pareto Models, Top Incomes and Recent Trends in UK Income Inequality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 84(334), pages 261-289, April.
    9. Jonathan Cribb & Carl Emmerson, 2017. "Can’t wait to get my pension: ?the effect of raising the female state pension age on income, poverty and deprivation," IFS Working Papers W17/10, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    10. Richard V. Burkhauser & Markus H. Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2016. "Top Incomes and Inequality in Australia: Reconciling Recent Estimates from Household Survey and Tax Return Data," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2016n19, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    11. Bukowski, Pawel & Novokmet, Filip, 2019. "Between communism and capitalism: long-term inequality in Poland, 1892-2015," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102814, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Bukowski, Pawel & Novokmet, Filip, 2019. "Between communism and capitalism: long-term inequality in Poland, 1892-2015," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102834, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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