IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/csdana/v100y2016icp830-846.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income inequality decomposition using a finite mixture of log-normal distributions: A Bayesian approach

Author

Listed:
  • Lubrano, Michel
  • Ndoye, Abdoul Aziz Junior

Abstract

The log-normal distribution is convenient for modelling the income distribution, and it offers an analytical expression for most inequality indices that depends only on the shape parameter of the associated Lorenz curve. A decomposable inequality index can be implemented in the framework of a finite mixture of log-normal distributions so that overall inequality can be decomposed into within-subgroup and between-subgroup components. Using a Bayesian approach and a Gibbs sampler, a Rao-Blackwellization can improve inference results on decomposable income inequality indices. The very nature of the economic question can provide prior information so as to distinguish between the income groups and construct an asymmetric prior density which can reduce label switching. Data from the UK Family Expenditure Survey (FES) (1979 to 1996) are used in an extended empirical application.

Suggested Citation

  • Lubrano, Michel & Ndoye, Abdoul Aziz Junior, 2016. "Income inequality decomposition using a finite mixture of log-normal distributions: A Bayesian approach," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 830-846.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:csdana:v:100:y:2016:i:c:p:830-846
    DOI: 10.1016/j.csda.2014.10.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167947314003016
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.csda.2014.10.009?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paapaa, Richard & van Dijk, Herman K., 1998. "Distribution and mobility of wealth of nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(7), pages 1269-1293, July.
    2. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    3. James B. McDonald, 2008. "Some Generalized Functions for the Size Distribution of Income," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, in: Duangkamon Chotikapanich (ed.), Modeling Income Distributions and Lorenz Curves, chapter 3, pages 37-55, Springer.
    4. Duangkamon Chotikapanich & William E. Griffiths, 2008. "Estimating Income Distributions Using a Mixture of Gamma Densities," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, in: Duangkamon Chotikapanich (ed.), Modeling Income Distributions and Lorenz Curves, chapter 16, pages 285-302, Springer.
    5. Karim Abadir, 1999. "An introduction to hypergeometric functions for economists," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 287-330.
    6. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Asymptotic and bootstrap inference for inequality and poverty measures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 141-166, November.
    7. Davidson, Russell, 2009. "Reliable inference for the Gini index," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 150(1), pages 30-40, May.
    8. Marron, J.S. & Schmitz, H.-P., 1992. "Simultaneous Density Estimation of Several Income Distributions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(4), pages 476-488, December.
    9. David J. Spiegelhalter & Nicola G. Best & Bradley P. Carlin & Angelika Van Der Linde, 2002. "Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 64(4), pages 583-639, October.
    10. Matthew Stephens, 2000. "Dealing with label switching in mixture models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 62(4), pages 795-809.
    11. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2000. "Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1435-1464, November.
    12. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1906 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6069 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. François Bourguignon, 2012. "La mondialisation de l'inégalité," Post-Print halshs-00754908, HAL.
    15. Martin Biewen & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2006. "Variance Estimation for Generalized Entropy and Atkinson Inequality Indices: the Complex Survey Data Case," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 68(3), pages 371-383, June.
    16. Luc Bauwens & Michel Lubrano, 1998. "Bayesian inference on GARCH models using the Gibbs sampler," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 1(Conferenc), pages 23-46.
    17. Bourguignon, Francois, 1979. "Decomposable Income Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 901-920, July.
    18. Singh, S K & Maddala, G S, 1976. "A Function for Size Distribution of Incomes," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(5), pages 963-970, September.
    19. Jenkins, Stephen P, 1996. "Recent Trends in the UK Income Distribution: What Happened and Why?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 29-46, Spring.
    20. McDonald, James B & Ransom, Michael R, 1979. "Functional Forms, Estimation Techniques and the Distribution of Income," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(6), pages 1513-1525, November.
    21. David E. A. Giles, 2004. "Calculating a Standard Error for the Gini Coefficient: Some Further Results," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 66(3), pages 425-433, July.
    22. Biewen, Martin, 2002. "Bootstrap inference for inequality, mobility and poverty measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(2), pages 317-342, 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. Michel Lubrano & Zhou Xun, 2021. "The Bayesian approach to poverty measurement," AMSE Working Papers 2133, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    2. Ellis Scharfenaker, Markus P.A. Schneider, 2019. "Labor Market Segmentation and the Distribution of Income: New Evidence from Internal Census Bureau Data," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2019_08, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    3. El Moctar Laghlal & Abdoul Aziz Junior Ndoye, 2018. "A Hybrid MCMC Sampler for Unconditional Quantile Based on Influence Function," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-11, May.
    4. Muhammad Hilmi Abdul Majid & Kamarulzaman Ibrahim & Nurulkamal Masseran, 2023. "Three-Part Composite Pareto Modelling for Income Distribution in Malaysia," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-15, June.
    5. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolaï & Michel Lubrano, 2021. "Bayesian Inference for Parametric Growth Incidence Curves," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Research on Economic Inequality: Poverty, Inequality and Shocks, volume 29, pages 31-55, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Edwin Fourrier-Nicolaï & Michel Lubrano, 2020. "Bayesian inference for TIP curves: an application to child poverty in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(1), pages 91-111, March.
    7. Kazuhiko Kakamu, 2022. "Bayesian analysis of mixtures of lognormal distribution with an unknown number of components from grouped data," Papers 2210.05115, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    8. Gregor Zens, 2019. "Bayesian shrinkage in mixture-of-experts models: identifying robust determinants of class membership," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 13(4), pages 1019-1051, December.
    9. Majda Benzidia & Michel Lubrano, 2016. "A Bayesian Look at American Academic Wages: The Case of Michigan State University," AMSE Working Papers 1628, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    10. Gregor Zens, 2018. "Bayesian shrinkage in mixture of experts models: Identifying robust determinants of class membership," Papers 1809.04853, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2019.
    11. Nartikoev, Alan & Peresetsky, Anatoly, 2020. "Эндогенная Классификация Домохозяйств В Регионах России [Endogenous household classification: Russian regions]," MPRA Paper 104351, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Flachaire, Emmanuel & Nunez, Olivier, 2007. "Estimation of the income distribution and detection of subpopulations: An explanatory model," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 51(7), pages 3368-3380, April.
    2. Judith Clarke & Nilanjana Roy, 2012. "On statistical inference for inequality measures calculated from complex survey data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 499-524, October.
    3. Kazuhiko Kakamu, 2022. "Bayesian analysis of mixtures of lognormal distribution with an unknown number of components from grouped data," Papers 2210.05115, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2023.
    4. Stephen P. Jenkins & John Micklewright, 2007. "New Directions in the Analysis of Inequality and Poverty," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 700, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Stéphane Guerrier & Samuel Orso & Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser, 2018. "Parametric Inference for Index Functionals," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-11, April.
    6. Dorothée Boccanfuso & Bernard Decaluwé & Luc Savard, 2008. "Poverty, income distribution and CGE micro-simulation modeling: Does the functional form of distribution matter?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(2), pages 149-184, June.
    7. Tim Goedemé, 2013. "How much Confidence can we have in EU-SILC? Complex Sample Designs and the Standard Error of the Europe 2020 Poverty Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 89-110, January.
    8. Frank A. Cowell & Emmanuel Flachaire, 2014. "Statistical Methods for Distributional Analysis," Working Papers halshs-01115996, HAL.
    9. David Warner & Prasada Rao & William E. Griffiths & Duangkamon Chotikapanich, 2011. "Global Inequality: Levels and Trends, 1993-2005," Discussion Papers Series 436, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    10. Vladimir Hlasny, 2021. "Parametric representation of the top of income distributions: Options, historical evidence, and model selection," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 1217-1256, September.
    11. St鰨ane Mussard & Patrick Richard, 2012. "Linking Yitzhaki's and Dagum's Gini decompositions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(23), pages 2997-3010, August.
    12. Silvia De Nicol`o & Maria Rosaria Ferrante & Silvia Pacei, 2021. "Mind the Income Gap: Bias Correction of Inequality Estimators in Small-Sized Samples," Papers 2107.08950, arXiv.org, revised May 2023.
    13. Brennan S. Thompson, 2013. "Empirical Likelihood-Based Inference for Poverty Measures with Relative Poverty Lines," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 513-523, December.
    14. Kazuhiko Kakamu & Haruhisa Nishino, 2016. "Bayesian Estimation Of Beta-Type Distribution Parameters Based On Grouped Data," Discussion Papers 2016-08, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    15. David (David Patrick) Madden, 2012. "Methods for studying dominance and inequality in population health," Working Papers 201205, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    16. Karoly, Lynn & Schröder, Carsten, 2015. "Fast methods for jackknifing inequality indices," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 37(1), pages 125-138.
    17. Cowell, Frank A. & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Income distribution and inequality measurement: The problem of extreme values," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1044-1072, December.
    18. Vladimir Hlasny & Paolo Verme, 2018. "Top Incomes and Inequality Measurement: A Comparative Analysis of Correction Methods Using the EU SILC Data," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-21, June.
    19. Fernández-Morales, Antonio, 2016. "Measuring poverty with the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke indexes based on the Gamma distribution," MPRA Paper 69648, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. William Horrace & Joseph Marchand & Timothy Smeeding, 2008. "Ranking inequality: Applications of multivariate subset selection," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(1), pages 5-32, March.

    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:eee:csdana:v:100:y:2016:i:c:p:830-846. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/csda .

    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.