IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lis/liswps/575.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Relationship between the Equivalence Scale and the Inequality Index and its Impact on the Measurement of Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Masato Okamoto

Abstract

The paper discusses the U-shaped relationship between the equivalence scale n? and the Gini index instead of considering the equivalence scale’s relationship to the generalised entropy measures, which was studied by Coulter, et al. (1992). An end-point condition is given for the U-shaped relationship, which corresponds to a condition for that of the generalised entropy measures. Additionally, using a mixture of log-normal distributions approach, five factors are shown to be required for a convex relationship between size elasticity ? and the Gini index. Empirically, income distributions satisfy those factors. Thus, the end-point condition essentially determines the shape of the relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Masato Okamoto, 2012. "The Relationship between the Equivalence Scale and the Inequality Index and its Impact on the Measurement of Income Inequality," LIS Working papers 575, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:lis:liswps:575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/575.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Banks, James & Johnson, Paul, 1994. "Equivalence Scale Relativities Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 883-890, July.
    2. Ray, Ranjan, 1983. "Measuring the costs of children : An alternative approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 89-102, October.
    3. Muellbauer, John, 1977. "Testing the Barten Model of Household Composition Effects and the Cost of Children," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 87(347), pages 460-487, September.
    4. 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.
    5. repec:bla:revinw:v:37:y:1991:i:3:p:313-29 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1986. "On Measuring Child Costs: With Applications to Poor Countries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 720-744, August.
    7. 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.
    8. Shelley Phipps & Thesia I. Garner, 1994. "Are Equivalence Scales The Same For The United States And Canada?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Masato Okamoto, 2009. "Decomposition of gini and multivariate gini indices," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(2), pages 153-177, June.
    10. Jenkins, Stephen P & Cowell, Frank A, 1994. "Parametric Equivalence Scales and Scale Relativities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 891-900, July.
    11. Coulter, Fiona A E & Cowell, Frank A & Jenkins, Stephen P, 1992. "Equivalence Scale Relativities and the Extent of Inequality and Poverty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 102(414), pages 1067-1082, September.
    12. Blundell, Richard & Ray, Ranjan, 1982. "A non-separable generalisation of the linear expenditure system allowing non-linear Engel curves," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 349-354.
    13. Muellbauer, John, 1980. "The Estimation of the Prais-Houthakker Model of Equivalence Scales," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(1), pages 153-176, January.
    14. McClements, L. D., 1977. "Equivalence scales for children," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 191-210, October.
    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. Stefan Kranzinger, 2020. "The decomposition of income inequality in the EU-28," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 643-668, August.
    2. Sergey A. Surkov & Ellen G. Trofimova, 2014. "Paradoxes of Poverty in Russia in Conditions of Growth of Highly Profitable Sectors of Economy," International Journal of Economics and Empirical Research (IJEER), The Economics and Social Development Organization (TESDO), vol. 2(10), pages 420-424, October.
    3. Masato Okamoto, 2012. "Evaluation of the goodness of fit of new statistical size distributions with consideration of accurate income inequality estimation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(4), pages 2969-2982.

    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. 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.
    2. Jean‐Yves Duclos & Magda Mercader‐Prats, 1999. "Household Needs And Poverty: With Application To Spain And The U.K," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 45(1), pages 77-98, March.
    3. Gianni Betti & Mehmet Ali Karadag & Ozlem Sarica & Baris Ucar, 2017. "How to Reduce the Impact of Equivalence Scales on Poverty Measurement: Evidence from Turkey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1023-1035, July.
    4. Angela Daley & Thesia I. Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across Place and Time in Household Expenditure Patterns: Implications for the Estimation of Equivalence Scales," Economic Working Papers 520, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    5. John Creedy & Cath Sleeman, 2005. "Adult equivalence scales, inequality and poverty," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(1), pages 51-81.
    6. Angela Daley & Thesia Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across countries and time in household expenditure patterns: implications for the estimation of equivalence scales," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 734-757, November.
    7. John Creedy & Catherine Sleeman, 2004. "Adult Equivalence Scales, Inequality and Poverty in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/21, New Zealand Treasury.
    8. Melanie Borah & Carina Keldenich & Andreas Knabe, 2019. "Reference Income Effects in the Determination of Equivalence Scales Using Income Satisfaction Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 736-770, December.
    9. Hillringhaus, Tilman & Peichl, Andreas, 2010. "Die Messung von Armut unter Berücksichtigung regional divergierender Lebenshaltungskosten und öffentlicher Leistungen," IZA Discussion Papers 5344, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Mysikova, Martina & Zelinsky, Tomas, 2019. "On the Measurement of the Income Poverty Rate: the Equivalence Scale across Europe," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 99(4), pages 383-397.
    11. John Creedy & Rosanna Scutella, 2003. "The Role of the Unit of Analysis in Tax Policy Reform Evaluations," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2003n28, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    12. Karina Doorley & Luke Duggan & Theano Kakoulidou & Barra Roantree, 2024. "Equivalisation (once again)," Trinity Economics Papers tep0124, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    13. Merz, Joachim & Faik, Jürgen, 1994. "Equivalence Scales Based on Revealed Preference Consumption Expenditure Microdata - The Case of West Germany," MPRA Paper 16297, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Paul Makdissi & Quentin Wodon, 2004. "Migration, poverty, and housing in Honduras," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 31(1 Year 20), pages 5-20, June.
    15. Christian Dudel & Jan Marvin Garbuszus & Julian Schmied, 2021. "Assessing differences in household needs: a comparison of approaches for the estimation of equivalence scales using German expenditure data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1629-1659, April.
    16. Justin Van De Ven & John Creedy, 2005. "Taxation, Reranking and Equivalence Scales," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 13-36, January.
    17. Ursicino Carrascal Arranz, 1996. "Estimación de escalas de equivalencia de consumo mediante un modelo de demenda casi ideal (AIDS) ampliado," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 6, pages 25-38, Diciembre.
    18. Boyd H. Hunter & Steven Kennedy & Nicholas Biddle, 2004. "Indigenous and Other Australian Poverty: Revisiting the Importance of Equivalence Scales," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(251), pages 411-422, December.
    19. 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.
    20. Richard V. Burkhauser & Timothy M. Smeeding & Joachim Merz, 1996. "Relative Inequality And Poverty In Germany And The United States Using Alternative Equivalence Scales," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(4), pages 381-400, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    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:lis:liswps:575. 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: Piotr Paradowski (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lisprlu.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.