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Theil, Inequality and the Structure of Income Distribution

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  • Frank A Cowell

Abstract

This paper documents the impact of Argentina's recent economic crises on different aspects of poverty, with a special focus on the economic collapse of 2002. We discuss the methodology of poverty measurement in Argentina and we use a simple rule to compensate for the lack of regional poverty figures until 2001, providing consistent series of urban poverty estimates at the national and regional levels. We then present series of short term dynamics of poverty, decomposing the changes in every period of time with panel data. Finally, we analyse the determinants of poverty, with a focus on accounting for observed differences in income (and thereby poverty) between October 2001 and May 2002. Among other conclusions, we find in our decomposition analysis that households without the means to diversify their income sources suffered more than others from the crisis of 2002.

Suggested Citation

  • Frank A Cowell, 2003. "Theil, Inequality and the Structure of Income Distribution," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 67, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:stidar:67
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    Cited by:

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    2. Gine, Xavier, 2005. "Cultivate or rent out ? Land security in rural Thailand," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3734, The World Bank.
    3. Sulekha Hembram & Sushil Kr. Haldar, 2019. "Beta, sigma and club convergence: Indian experience from 1980 to 2015," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 343-366, December.
    4. Chen, Lei & Xu, Linyu & Yang, Zhifeng, 2019. "Inequality of industrial carbon emissions of the urban agglomeration and its peripheral cities: A case in the Pearl River Delta, China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 438-447.
    5. Sushil Kr. Haldar & Sulekha Hembram & Suraj Das, 2023. "Multidimensional Human Deprivation in India: Does Club Convergence Exist?," Millennial Asia, , vol. 14(2), pages 200-227, June.
    6. Eduardo Michel Camacho & Willy W. Cortez, 2012. "Distribución del ingreso y bienestar social en México 1984-2008," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 27(2), pages 347-378.
    7. Sergio Firpo & Cristine Pinto, 2016. "Identification and Estimation of Distributional Impacts of Interventions Using Changes in Inequality Measures," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 457-486, April.
    8. Aoki, Shuhei, 2008. "Aggregate Productivity Loss and the Theil Index of Inequality," MPRA Paper 7407, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Tudorel Andrei & Bogdan Oancea & Peter Richmond & Gurjeet Dhesi & Claudiu Herteliu, 2017. "Decomposition of the Inequality of Income Distribution by Income Types - Application for Romania," Papers 1709.07960, arXiv.org.
    10. Mbanda, Vandudzai & Bonga-Bonga, Lumengo, 2018. "CGE Microsimulation Analysis of Electricity Tariff Increases: The Case of South Africa," MPRA Paper 90120, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Francesca Greselin & Ričardas Zitikis, 2018. "From the Classical Gini Index of Income Inequality to a New Zenga-Type Relative Measure of Risk: A Modeller’s Perspective," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-20, January.
    12. Firpo, Sergio Pinheiro, 2010. "Identification and estimation of interventions using changes in inequality measures," Textos para discussão 214, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    13. Lanjouw, P. & Marra, M.R., 2018. "Urban poverty across the spectrum of Vietnam’s towns and cities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 295-306.
    14. Ravi Kanbur, 2024. "Shannon-Theil-Rawls: Information Theory, Inequality and the Veil of Ignorance," Working Papers 669, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Theil; inequality; independence; homotheticity; translatability.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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