IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v56y2015icp68-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Income inequality may not converge after all: Testing panel unit roots in the presence of cross-section cointegration

Author

Listed:
  • Ho, Tsung-wu

Abstract

This paper empirically examines whether there exists stochastic convergence of income inequality among 48 contiguous US states from 1916 to 2012. To control long-run cross-section dependency in panel data, we apply the orthogonal instrument generating approach of Chang and Song (2009) to test unit root. Our results, unlike the literature, do not support the convergence hypothesis. Moreover, we confirm that long-run cross-section correlation has substantial impacts, which are robust to all inequality measures as well as quantile differentials. In addition, although there is a given rising trend, the income distribution of the United States is state-specific and does not converge to either the national level or the state-average.

Suggested Citation

  • Ho, Tsung-wu, 2015. "Income inequality may not converge after all: Testing panel unit roots in the presence of cross-section cointegration," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 68-79.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:68-79
    DOI: 10.1016/j.qref.2014.10.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062976914000842
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.qref.2014.10.005?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gleason, Kimberly C. & Mathur, Ike & Peterson, Mark A., 2004. "Analysis of intraday herding behavior among the sector ETFs," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 681-694, December.
    2. Guetat, Imene & Serranito, Francisco, 2007. "Income convergence within the MENA countries: A panel unit root approach," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 685-706, February.
    3. Les Oxley & David Greasley, 1995. "A Time‐Series Perspective on Convergence: Australia, UK and USA since 1870," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 71(3), pages 259-270, September.
    4. M. Hashem Pesaran, 2007. "A simple panel unit root test in the presence of cross-section dependence," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 265-312.
    5. Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Inequality convergence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 351-356, September.
    6. Cutler, David M & Katz, Lawrence F, 1992. "Rising Inequality? Changes in the Distribution of Income and Consumption in the 1980's," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 546-551, May.
    7. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2003:i:22:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Yoosoon Chang & Robin C. Sickles & Wonho Song, 2017. "Bootstrapping unit root tests with covariates," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1-3), pages 136-155, March.
    9. Chang, Yoosoon, 2004. "Bootstrap unit root tests in panels with cross-sectional dependency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 263-293, June.
    10. Chang, Yoosoon, 2002. "Nonlinear IV unit root tests in panels with cross-sectional dependency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 261-292, October.
    11. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Vanessa Smith, L. & Yamagata, Takashi, 2013. "Panel unit root tests in the presence of a multifactor error structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 175(2), pages 94-115.
    12. Yoosoon Chang & Joon Y. Park & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2001. "Nonlinear econometric models with cointegrated and deterministically trending regressors," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 4(1), pages 1-36.
    13. Bernard, Andrew B & Durlauf, Steven N, 1995. "Convergence in International Output," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 97-108, April-Jun.
    14. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2009. "Convergence in income inequality in the United States: a nonparametric analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(13), pages 1365-1368.
    15. Evans, Paul, 1998. "Using Panel Data to Evaluate Growth Theories," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 295-306, May.
    16. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    17. Arghyrou, Michael G. & Gregoriou, Andros & Kontonikas, Alexandros, 2009. "Do real interest rates converge? Evidence from the European union," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 447-460, July.
    18. repec:bla:obuest:v:61:y:1999:i:0:p:631-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. repec:bla:ecorec:v:71:y:1995:i:214:p:259-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Serena Ng & Pierre Perron, 2001. "LAG Length Selection and the Construction of Unit Root Tests with Good Size and Power," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(6), pages 1519-1554, November.
    21. Michael Bleaney & Akira Nishiyama, 2003. "Convergence in income inequality: differences between advanced and developing countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(22), pages 1-10.
    22. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    23. Harris, Richard D. F. & Tzavalis, Elias, 1999. "Inference for unit roots in dynamic panels where the time dimension is fixed," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 201-226, August.
    24. Ugo Panizza, 2001. "Convergence in Income Inequality," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 10(1-2), pages 1-1, June.
    25. Lin, Pei-Chien & Huang, Ho-Chuan (River), 2012. "Inequality convergence revisited: Evidence from stationarity panel tests with breaks and cross correlation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 316-325.
    26. Yoosoon Chang & Wonho Song, 2009. "Testing for Unit Roots in Small Panels with Short-run and Long-run Cross-sectional Dependencies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 76(3), pages 903-935.
    27. repec:bla:reviec:v:9:y:2001:i:1:p:153-62 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Mark W. Frank, 2009. "Inequality And Growth In The United States: Evidence From A New State‐Level Panel Of Income Inequality Measures," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 55-68, January.
    29. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1996. "Convergence revisited," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 249-265, April.
    30. David S. Lee, 1999. "Wage Inequality in the United States During the 1980s: Rising Dispersion or Falling Minimum Wage?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 977-1023.
    31. Carlino, Gerald A. & Mills, Leonard O., 1993. "Are U.S. regional incomes converging? : A time series analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 335-346, November.
    32. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    33. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    34. Vassilis Tselios, 2009. "Growth and Convergence in Income Per Capita and Income Inequality in the Regions of the EU," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 343-370.
    35. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:4:p:427-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    36. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2005. "Is there convergence in income inequality levels among the European regions?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(12), pages 763-767.
    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. Francesco Savoia & Ioannis Bournakis & Mona Said & Antonio Savoia, 2024. "Regional income inequality in Egypt: evolution and implications for Sustainable Development Goal 10," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 17-33, January.
    2. Francesco Savoia, 2020. "Income Inequality Convergence Across EU Regions," LIS Working papers 760, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Savoia, Francesco, 2024. "Income inequality convergence among EU regions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. OlaOluwa S. Yaya & Fumitaka Furuoka & Kiew Ling Pui & Ray Ikechukwu Jacob & Chinyere M. Ezeoke, 2020. "Investigating Asian regional income convergence using Fourier Unit Root test with Break," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 161, pages 120-129.
    5. Kolawole Ogundari, 2023. "Club Convergence in Income Inequality in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 319-337, June.
    6. Christina Stacy & Brady Meixell & Tanaya Srini, 2019. "Inequality Versus Inclusion in US Cities," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 117-156, August.
    7. Nora Lustig & Daniel Teles, 2016. "Inequality convergence: How sensitive are results to the choice of data?," Working Papers 412, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Claudia Suárez‐Arbesú & Nicholas Apergis & Francisco J. Delgado, 2023. "Club convergence and factors of income inequality in the European Union," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 3654-3666, October.
    9. Ruijia Wu & Rafael Alvarado & Priscila Méndez & Brayan Tillaguango, 2024. "Impact of Informational and Cultural Globalization, R&D, and Urbanization on Inequality," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(1), pages 1666-1702, March.

    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. Lin, Pei-Chien & Huang, Ho-Chuan (River), 2012. "Inequality convergence revisited: Evidence from stationarity panel tests with breaks and cross correlation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 316-325.
    2. Pei-Chien Lin & Ho-Chuan Huang, 2012. "Convergence in income inequality? evidence from panel unit root tests with structural breaks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 153-174, August.
    3. Liu, Wen-Chi, 2013. "Reexamining the income inequality in China: Evidence from sequential panel selection method," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 37-42.
    4. Omid Ranjbar & Tsangyao Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee, 2016. "Income Convergence toward USA: New Evidences for Latin and South American Countries," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 20(2), pages 141-162, Spring.
    5. Matsuki, Takashi & Usami, Ryoichi, 2007. "China's Regional Convergence in Panels with Multiple Structural Breaks," MPRA Paper 10167, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 May 2008.
    6. Pei-Chien Lin & Chun-Hung Lin & I-Ling Ho, 2013. "Regional convergence or divergence in China? Evidence from unit root tests with breaks," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 50(1), pages 223-243, February.
    7. Alfonso Mendoza-Velázquez & Daniel Ventosa-Santaulària & Vicente Germán-Soto, 2019. "Mexico’s inter-regional inequality: a convergent process?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1683-1705, May.
    8. Josep Carrion-i-Silvestre & Vicente German-Soto, 2009. "Panel data stochastic convergence analysis of the Mexican regions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 303-327, October.
    9. Amélie Charles & Olivier Darne & Jean-François Hoarau, 2012. "Convergence of real per capita GDP within COMESA countries: A panel unit root evidence," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(1), pages 53-71, August.
    10. Korap, Levent, 2010. "OECD ülkeleri için ekonomik yakınsama öngörüsünün zaman serisi panel birim kök yöntemleri ile sınanması [An essay upon testing economic convergence hypothesis with time series panel unit root metho," MPRA Paper 29644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Giray Gozgor, 2013. "Testing Unemployment Persistence in Central and Eastern European Countries," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 3(3), pages 694-700.
    12. Issa, Samah & Girardone, Claudia & Snaith, Stuart, 2022. "Banking competition, convergence and growth across macro-regions of MENA," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 534-549.
    13. László KÓNYA, 2023. "Per Capita Income Convergence and Divergence of Selected OECD Countries to and from the US: A Reappraisal for the period 1900-2018," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 23(1), pages 33-56.
    14. Valérie Mignon & Christophe Hurlin, 2005. "Une synthèse des tests de racine unitaire sur données de panel," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 169(3), pages 253-294.
    15. Breitung, Jörg & Pesaran, Mohammad Hashem, 2005. "Unit roots and cointegration in panels," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2005,42, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    16. Tolga Omay & Yılmaz Akdi & Furkan Emirmahmutoglu & Meltem Eryılmaz, 2024. "The Refinement of a Common Correlated Effect Estimator in Panel Unit Root Testing: An Extensive Simulation Study," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-25, November.
    17. Lopez, Claude & Papell, David H., 2012. "Convergence of Euro area inflation rates," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1440-1458.
    18. Mushtaq Ahmad Malik & Tariq Masood, 2022. "Dynamics of Output Growth and Convergence in the Middle East and North African Countries: Heterogeneous Panel ARDL Approach," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 1444-1469, June.
    19. Wagner, Martin, 2008. "The carbon Kuznets curve: A cloudy picture emitted by bad econometrics?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 388-408, August.
    20. Werner, Daniel, 2013. "New insights into the development of regional unemployment disparities," IAB-Discussion Paper 201311, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality convergence; Panel unit root; Cross-section cointegration; Quantile differentials; Orthogonal instrument generating function;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

    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:eee:quaeco:v:56:y:2015:i:c:p:68-79. 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/inca/620167 .

    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.