IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ott/wpaper/2607e.html

Measuring Plutonomy Intensity Under Data Deprivation: An Axiomatic Index

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Makdissi

    (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada)

  • Myra Yazbeck

    (Department of Economics, University of Ottawa, Canada)

Abstract

Measuring top-income inequality typically requires household surveys merged with tax records, or Pareto tails fitted to survey data, resources unavailable across much of the developing world. In this note, we propose a simple plutonomy intensity index estimable from alternative sources. Three axioms, within-group irrelevance, joint income scaling invariance, and plutocratic income monotonicity, characterize the class of indices ranking distributions exactly as the plutocrat-to-ordinary mean income ratio does. The index also satisfies anonymity, population invariance, and a restricted transfer principle. We illustrate its use in the Arab region, approximating it using the Forbes Billionaires List and World Bank macroeconomic data.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Makdissi & Myra Yazbeck, 2026. "Measuring Plutonomy Intensity Under Data Deprivation: An Axiomatic Index," Working Papers 2607E, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ott:wpaper:2607e
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10393/52022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    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.
    2. Arthur Charpentier & Emmanuel Flachaire, 2022. "Pareto models for top incomes and wealth," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Atamanov,Aziz & Tandon,Sharad Alan & Lopez-Acevedo,Gladys C. & Vergara Bahena,Mexico Alberto, 2020. "Measuring Monetary Poverty in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region : Data Gaps and Different Options to Address Them," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9259, The World Bank.
    4. Rabah Arezki & Daniel Lederman & Amani Abou Harb & Nelly El-Mallakh & Rachel Yuting Fan & Asif Islam & Ha Nguyen & Marwane Zouaidi, 2020. "Middle East and North Africa Economic Update, April 2020," World Bank Publications - Reports 33475, The World Bank Group.
    5. Paul Makdissi & Walid Marrouch & Myra Yazbeck, 2025. "Monitoring Poverty in a Data‐Deprived Environment: The Case of Lebanon," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 71(1), February.
    6. Arezki,Rabah & Senbet,Lemma W., 2020. "Transforming Finance in the Middle East and North Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9301, The World Bank.
    7. Shantayanan Devarajan & Elena Ianchovichina, 2018. "A Broken Social Contract, Not High Inequality, Led to the Arab Spring," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(s1), pages 5-25, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Paul Makdissi & Walid Marrouch & Myra Yazbeck, 2025. "Monitoring Poverty in a Data‐Deprived Environment: The Case of Lebanon," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 71(1), February.
    2. Mathias Silva, 2023. "Parametric models of income distributions integrating misreporting and non-response mechanisms," AMSE Working Papers 2311, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    3. Frank Cowell & Emmanuel Flachaire, 2021. "Inequality Measurement: Methods and Data," Post-Print hal-03589066, HAL.
    4. Assouad, Lydia, 2023. "Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: The extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon, 2005–2014," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Haiyuan Wan & Yangcheng Yu, 2023. "Correction of China's income inequality for missing top incomes," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1769-1791, August.
    6. Assouad, Lydia, 2023. "Rethinking the Lebanese economic miracle: the extreme concentration of income and wealth in Lebanon, 2005–2014," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117680, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Tao, Yong & Li, Hualong, 2026. "Opportunity polarization: A divided world," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 685(C).
    8. Bergstrom, Katy & Dodds, William & Lacoste, Nicholas & Rios, Juan, 2026. "Estimating the welfare cost of labor supply frictions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    9. Ferreira, Francisco H. G. & Brunori, Paolo, 2024. "Inherited inequality, meritocracy, and the purpose of economic growth," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126263, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Hayet Soltani & Mouna Boujelbène Abbes, 2025. "Regime-Specific Spillover Effects Between Financial Stress, GCC Stock Markets, Brent Crude Oil, and the Gold Market," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 8840-8866, June.
    11. Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Shi & Li, Qinghai, 2025. "The missing rich households and wealth polarization in 21st century China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(PA).
    12. Korom, Philipp, 2016. "Inherited advantage: The importance of inheritance for private wealth accumulation in Europe," MPIfG Discussion Paper 16/11, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    13. Foellmi, Reto & Martínez, Isabel Z., 2014. "Volatile Top Income Shares in Switzerland? Reassessing the Evolution Between 1981 and 2009," CEPR Discussion Papers 10006, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    14. Lakatos, Csilla & Laborde, David & Martin, Will, 2019. "The Incidence of Tariffs," Conference papers 333060, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. Wim Naudé, 2016. "Is European Entrepreneurship in Crisis?," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(03), pages 03-07, October.
    16. Bozio, Antoine & Garbinti, Bertrand & Goupille-Lebret, Jonathan & Guillot, Malka & Piketty, Thomas, 2020. "Predistribution vs. Redistribution: Evidence from France and the U.S," CEPR Discussion Papers 15415, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    17. Christine Mayrhuber & Christian Glocker & Thomas Horvath & Silvia Rocha-Akis, 2015. "Entwicklung und Verteilung der Einkommen in Österreich," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 50897.
    18. Casey Rothschild & Florian Scheuer, 2014. "A Theory of Income Taxation under Multidimensional Skill Heterogeneity," NBER Working Papers 19822, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Laetitia Comminges & Arnak Dalalyan, 2012. "Minimax Testing of a Composite null Hypothesis Defined via a Quadratic Functional in the Model of regression," Working Papers 2012-19, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    20. Fiorio, Carlo & Bazzoli, Martina & De Poli, Silvia & Azzolini, Davide & Poy, Samuele, 2014. "TREMOD: a microsimulation model for the Province of Trento (Italy)," EUROMOD Working Papers EM15/14, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:ott:wpaper:2607e. 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: Aggey Semenov (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deottca.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.