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A Twofold Subjective Measure of Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Attila Gáspár

    (KRTK-KTI
    University of Padova)

  • Carmen Cervone

    (University of Padova)

  • Federica Durante

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

  • Anne Maass

    (New York University Abu Dhabi)

  • Caterina Suitner

    (University of Padova)

  • Roberta Rosa Valtorta

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

  • Michela Vezzoli

    (University of Milano-Bicocca)

Abstract

Social scientists have been aiming to calculate a “subjective income Gini coefficient”of survey respondents that would describe their beliefs about income inequality in their country. Niehues (Subjective perceptions of inequality and redistributive preferences: an international comparison, Cologne Institute for Economic Research, IWTRENDS Discussion Paper, 2014) derives this estimate from respondents’ beliefs about the relative sizes of different social classes (answers to “shape of society” questions), while Kuhn (The individual perception of wage inequality: a measurement framework and some empirical evidence, Technical report, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), 2015) estimates it using beliefs about the pay structure. We combine their efforts to calculate what we call a twofold subjective Gini coefficient, which incorporates both pieces of information independently from one another. We present the country-level distribution of perceived and desired twofold subjective Gini coefficients using the ISSP Social Inequality V survey (ISSP Research Group in International social survey programme: social inequality v—issp 2019, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4225/13/511C71F8612C3 ). Accounting for both subjective class structure and pay structure yields much lower perceived and desired levels of inequality. At the country level the averages of the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are closer to actual income Gini coefficients than the previous measures. At the individual level the twofold subjective Gini coefficients are better predictors of the individual’s verbal assessment of inequality and their preferences towards redistribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Attila Gáspár & Carmen Cervone & Federica Durante & Anne Maass & Caterina Suitner & Roberta Rosa Valtorta & Michela Vezzoli, 2023. "A Twofold Subjective Measure of Income Inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 25-43, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:168:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-023-03121-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-023-03121-w
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Knell, Markus & Stix, Helmut, 2020. "Perceptions of inequality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    2. Chunping Han, 2014. "Health Implications of Socioeconomic Characteristics, Subjective Social Status, and Perceptions of Inequality: An Empirical Study of China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 119(2), pages 495-514, November.
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    4. Sen, Amartya, 1997. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292975.
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