IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2014-332.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Luxembourg Income Study

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Ravallion

    (Department of Economics, Georgetown University)

Abstract

The Luxembourg Income Study (now known as LIS) provides public access for research purposes to harmonized unit-record data sets for multiple countries, in addition to providing summary statistics from those data, including poverty and inequality measures. LIS is a well-managed and undeniably important global public institution for research on inequality and social policy in rich countries. However, LIS's eligibility criteria, country coverage, timeliness and some of its measurement practices limit its usefulness for many other purposes. The paper identifies a number of issues that would need to be addressed by a truly global micro-data base for studying poverty and inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Ravallion, 2014. "The Luxembourg Income Study," Working Papers 332, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2014-332
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2014-332.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen, 2013. "A Proposal for Truly Global Poverty Measures," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 4(3), pages 258-265, September.
    2. Timothy Smeeding & Gunther Schmaus & Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well-Being, Inequality and Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using the LIS Database," LIS Working papers 17, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    3. Martin Ravallion & Shaohua Chen, 2011. "Weakly Relative Poverty," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1251-1261, November.
    4. Ferdinand A. Gul & Judy S. L. Tsui, 2004. "Introduction and overview," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: The Governance of East Asian Corporations, chapter 1, pages 1-26, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Slesnick,Daniel T., 2001. "Consumption and Social Welfare," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521497206, January.
    6. Foster, James E, 1998. "Absolute versus Relative Poverty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 335-341, May.
    7. De MESNARD, Louis, 2007. "Poverty reduction: the paradox of the endogenous poverty line," LEG - Document de travail - Economie 2007-05, LEG, Laboratoire d'Economie et de Gestion, CNRS, Université de Bourgogne.
    8. Martin Ravallion, 2003. "Measuring Aggregate Welfare in Developing Countries: How Well Do National Accounts and Surveys Agree?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(3), pages 645-652, August.
    9. Angus Deaton & Salman Zaidi, 2002. "Guidelines for Constructing Consumption Aggregates for Welfare Analysis," World Bank Publications, The World Bank, number 14101, April.
    10. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1979. "Welfare Comparisons and Equivalence Scales," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(2), pages 216-221, May.
    11. Korinek, Anton & Mistiaen, Johan A. & Ravallion, Martin, 2007. "An econometric method of correcting for unit nonresponse bias in surveys," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 213-235, January.
    12. Anton Korinek & Johan Mistiaen & Martin Ravallion, 2006. "Survey nonresponse and the distribution of income," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(1), pages 33-55, April.
    13. Brigitte Buhmann & Lee Rainwater & Guenther Schmaus & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1988. "Equivalence Scales, Well‐Being, Inequality, And Poverty: Sensitivity Estimates Across Ten Countries Using The Luxembourg Income Study (Lis) Database," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(2), pages 115-142, June.
    14. Andrea Brandolini & Anthony B. Atkinson, 2001. "Promise and Pitfalls in the Use of "Secondary" Data-Sets: Income Inequality in OECD Countries As a Case Study," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(3), pages 771-799, September.
    15. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Indicators 2013," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13191.
    16. repec:bla:revinw:v:34:y:1988:i:2:p:115-42 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Jefferson, Philip N. (ed.), 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Poverty," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195393781.
    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. Francisco G. Ferreira & Nora Lustig & Daniel Teles, 2015. "Appraising cross-national income inequality databases: An introduction," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(4), pages 497-526, December.
    2. Chiara Burlina & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2024. "Inequality, poverty, deprivation and the uneven spread of COVID-19 in Europe," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(2), pages 263-284, February.
    3. Nora Lustig, 2018. "Measuring the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth: State of Play and Measurement Challenges," Working Papers 1801, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    4. Marco Ioffredi, 2018. "Income Inequality and Economic Growth: Decomposing the Effects of the Income Distribution," LIS Working papers 751, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    5. Brian Nolan, 2020. "The Median Versus Inequality-Adjusted GNI as Core Indicator of ‘Ordinary’ Household Living Standards in Rich Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 569-585, July.
    6. Angela Guarin & Merita Mesiäislehto & Mia Hakovirta & Molly Costanzo, 2023. "Single Mothers and Child Support in Extended-Family Households: an International Perspective," LIS Working papers 868, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    7. Stanislaw Maciej Kot & Piotr Paradowski, 2022. "The Atlas of Inequality Aversion: Theory and Empirical Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study Database," LIS Working papers 826, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Javier Martín-Román & Luis Ayala & Juan Vicente, 2017. "Regional inequality in decentralized countries: a multi-country analysis using LIS," LIS Working papers 697, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Stefan Thewissen & Lane Kenworthy & Brian Nolan & Max Roser & Tim Smeeding, 2018. "Rising Income Inequality and Living Standards in OECD Countries: How Does the Middle Fare?," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 26(2), pages 1-23, July.
    10. Gründler, Klaus & Köllner, Sebastian, 2017. "Determinants of governmental redistribution: Income distribution, development levels, and the role of perceptions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 930-962.
    11. Michael A. Nelson & Rajeev K. Goel, 2023. "Spillovers from gender equality onto economic equality: Evidence from 162 nations," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1365-1388, August.
    12. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2019. "Income Inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in 31 Countries After the Crisis," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 61(1), pages 119-148, March.
    13. Brian Nolan & Max Roser & Stefan Thewissen, 2016. "GDP Per Capita Versus Median Household Income: What Gives Rise to Divergence Over Time?," LIS Working papers 672, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Peter Bofinger & Philipp Scheuermeyer, 2019. "Income Distribution and Aggregate Saving: A Non‐Monotonic Relationship," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 872-907, December.
    15. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 2019. "Global poverty measurement when relative income matters," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Koen Caminada & Kees Goudswaard & Chen Wang & Jinxian Wang, 2021. "Antipoverty Effects of Various Social Transfers and Income Taxes Across Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 1055-1076, April.
    17. Ana Suárez Álvarez & Ana Jesús López Menéndez, 2018. "Inequality of Opportunity in Developing countries: Does the income aggregate matter?," LIS Working papers 739, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    18. Ana Suárez Álvarez & Ana Jesús López Menéndez, 2020. "Trends in Inequality of Opportunity for Developing Countries: Does the Economic Indicator Matter?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 503-539, June.
    19. Björklund, Anders & Waldenström, Daniel, 2021. "Facts and Myths in the Popular Debate about Inequality in Sweden," Working Paper Series 1392, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Marco Lilla, 2016. "Falling Behind or Catching Up? Cross-Country Evidence in Intra-Generational Wages Mobility through Pseudo-Panels," LIS Working papers 669, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    21. Erauskin, Iñaki & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2019. "International financial integration and income inequality in a stochastically growing economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 55-74.
    22. Brian Nolan & Max Roser & Stefan Thewissen, 2016. "Models, Regimes, And The Evolution Of Middle Incomes In OECD Countries," LIS Working papers 660, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

    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. Decerf, Benoit, 2017. "Why not consider that being absolutely poor is worse than being only relatively poor?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 79-92.
    2. Decerf, B., 2015. "A new index combining the absolute and relative aspects of income poverty: Theory and application," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2015050, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    3. Facundo Alvaredo & Leonardo Gasparini, 2013. "Recent Trends in Inequality and Poverty in Developing Countries," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0151, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    4. Salvatore Morelli & Timothy Smeeding & Jeffrey Thompson, 2014. "Post-1970 Trends in Within-Country Inequality and Poverty: Rich and Middle Income Countries," CSEF Working Papers 356, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    5. DECERF, Benoit, 2014. "Income poverty measures with relative poverty lines," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014022, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Martin Ravallion, 2016. "Toward better global poverty measures," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(2), pages 227-248, June.
    7. Andrea Brandolini, 2006. "Measurement of Income Distribution in Supranational Entities: The Case of the European Union," LIS Working papers 452, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    8. Regier, Gregory & Zereyesus, Yacob & Dalton, Timothy & Amanor-Boadu, Vincent, 2015. "Do Adult Equivalence Scales Matter in Poverty Estimates? A Ghana Case Study," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212487, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Ravallion, Martin, 2015. "On testing the scale sensitivity of poverty measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 88-90.
    10. Burkhauser, Richard V. & Larrimore, Jeff & Simon, Kosali I., 2012. "A "Second Opinion" on the Economic Health of the American Middle Class," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(1), pages 7-32, March.
    11. Brun, Martín & Colacce, Maira, 2019. "Medición de la pobreza monetaria en el Uruguay: conceptos, metodologías, evolución y alternativas," Estudios y Perspectivas – Oficina de la CEPAL en Montevideo 44415, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    12. 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.
    13. Pogorelskiy, Kirill & Seidl, Christian & Traub, Stefan, 2010. "Tax progression: International and intertemporal comparison using LIS data," Economics Working Papers 2010-08, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    14. Martin Ravallion, 2013. "The Idea of Antipoverty Policy," NBER Working Papers 19210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Stefan Thewissen & Lane Kenworthy & Brian Nolan & Max Roser & Tim Smeeding, 2018. "Rising Income Inequality and Living Standards in OECD Countries: How Does the Middle Fare?," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 26(2), pages 1-23, July.
    16. Rolf Aaberge & François Bourguignon & Andrea Brandolini & Francisco H. G. Ferreira & Janet C. Gornick & John Hills & Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins & Eric Marlier & John Micklewright & Brian Nolan, 2017. "Tony Atkinson and his Legacy," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(3), pages 411-444, September.
    17. Shaohua Chen & Martin Ravallion, 2010. "The Developing World is Poorer than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(4), pages 1577-1625.
    18. Newhouse, David & Suárez Becerra, Pablo & Evans, Martin, 2017. "New global estimates of child poverty and their sensitivity to alternative equivalence scales," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 125-128.
    19. Sunil Kumar & Renuka Mahadevan, 2008. "Construction of An Adult Equivalence Index to Measure Intra-household Inequality and Poverty: Case Study," Discussion Papers Series 363, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    20. Vincent Mahler, 2002. "Exploring the Subnational Dimension of Income Inequality: An Analysis of the Relationship between Inequality and Electoral Turnout in the Developed Countries," LIS Working papers 292, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income; poverty; inequality; household surveys; data access.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • 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:inq:inqwps:ecineq2014-332. 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: Maria Ana Lugo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.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.