IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/max/cprwps/160.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring Social Unrest Based on Income Distribution

Author

Abstract

This paper* develops a social unrest measure by revising Esteban-Ray (1994, Econometrica) polarization index. For the purpose of measuring more effectively the level of social unrest that is generated by separation of income classes, the new index allows for asymmetry between the rich and the poor groups’ alienation feeling against the other, and it constructs a more effective group identification function. To facilitate statistical inferences, asymptotic distribution of the proposed measure is also derived using results from U-statistics, and an easy-to-implement jackknife-based variance estimation algorithm is obtained. Since the new index is general enough to include the Esteban-Ray index and the Gini index for group data as special cases, the asymptotic results can be readily applied to these popular indices. Evidence based on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data suggests that the level of social unrest has generally increased over the sample period of 1981-2005, particular since the late 1990’s, and the increase is statistically significant.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoonseok Lee & Donggyun Shin, 2013. "Measuring Social Unrest Based on Income Distribution," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 160, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    • Handle: RePEc:max:cprwps:160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/384/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    2. repec:bla:obuest:v:62:y:2000:i:1:p:119-22 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Carlos Gradín & Máximo Rossi, 2006. "Income distribution and income sources in Uruguay," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 9, pages 49-69, May.
    4. Dagum, Camilo, 1997. "A New Approach to the Decomposition of the Gini Income Inequality Ratio," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 515-531.
    5. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1991. "Calculating Jackknife Variance Estimators for Parameters of the Gini Method," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 9(2), pages 235-239, April.
    6. repec:bla:revinw:v:46:y:2000:i:4:p:457-74 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Kuan Xu, 2007. "U-Statistics and Their Asymptotic Results for Some Inequality and Poverty Measures," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 567-577.
    8. Wolfson, Michael C, 1994. "When Inequalities Diverge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 353-358, May.
    9. Conchita D’Ambrosio & Edward N. Wolff, 2006. "Is Wealth Becoming More Polarized in the United States?," Chapters, in: Edward N. Wolff (ed.), International Perspectives on Household Wealth, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Bishop, John A & Formby, John P & Zheng, Buhong, 1997. "Statistical Inference and the Sen Index of Poverty," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(2), pages 381-387, May.
    11. Bishop, John A & Formby, John P & Zheng, Buhong, 1998. "Inference Tests for Gini-Based Tax Progressivity Indexes," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 16(3), pages 322-330, July.
    12. James Foster & Michael Wolfson, 2010. "Polarization and the decline of the middle class: Canada and the U.S," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 247-273, June.
    13. Elias Karagiannis & Milorad Kovacevic', 2000. "A Method to Calculate the Jackknife Variance Estimator For the Gini Coefficient," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 62(1), pages 119-122, February.
    14. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    15. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    16. Marta Reynal-Querol, 2002. "Ethnicity, Political Systems, and Civil Wars," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(1), pages 29-54, February.
    17. Xu, Kuan, 2000. "Inference for Generalized Gini Indices Using the Iterated-Bootstrap Method," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 18(2), pages 223-227, April.
    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. Ghosh, Saibal, 2023. "Social unrest and corporate behaviour during the Arab Spring period," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 27(C).

    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. Yoonseok Lee & Donggyun Shin, 2016. "Measuring Social Tension from Income Class Segregation," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 457-471, July.
    2. Wang, Chen & Wan, Guanghua, 2015. "Income polarization in China: Trends and changes," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 58-72.
    3. Kuan Xu, 2007. "U-Statistics and Their Asymptotic Results for Some Inequality and Poverty Measures," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 567-577.
    4. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2005. "A Comparison of Polarization Measures," Working Papers 310, Barcelona School of Economics.
    5. Ilaria Petrarca & Roberto Ricciuti, 2015. "Relative income distribution in six European countries: market and disposable income," LIS Working papers 629, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    6. Alexander Sohn, 2015. "Beyond Conventional Wage Discrimination Analysis: Assessing Comprehensive Wage Distributions of Males and Females Using Structured Additive Distributional Regression," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 802, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    7. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    8. Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2015. "A Class of Social Welfare Functions That Depend on Mean Income and Income Polarization," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 422-439, September.
    9. Clementi,F. & Fabiani,M. & Molini,V., 2018. "The devil is in the details : growth, polarization, and poverty reduction in Africa in the past two decades," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8494, The World Bank.
    10. Martyna Kobus, 2014. "On the measurement of polarization for ordinal data," Working Papers 325, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. Martyna Kobus, 2015. "Polarization measurement for ordinal data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(2), pages 275-297, June.
    12. Michal Brzezinski, 2013. "Income polarization and economic growth," Working Papers 296, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    13. Juan Prieto-Rodríguez & Juan Gabriel Rodríguez & Rafael Salas, "undated". "Interactions Inequality-Polarization: Characterization Results(*)," Working Papers 15-05 Classification-JEL , Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.
    14. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2013. "Income polarization in Brazil, 2001-2011: A distributional analysis using PNAD data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1796-1815.
    15. Nicole Palan, 2010. "Measurement of Specialization – The Choice of Indices," FIW Working Paper series 062, FIW.
    16. Fedorov, Leonid, 2002. "Regional Inequality and Regional Polarization in Russia, 1990-99," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 443-456, March.
    17. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    18. Satya R. Chakravarty & Amita Majumder & Sonali Roy, 2007. "A Treatment Of Absolute Indices Of Polarization," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 273-293, June.
    19. Joon-Woo Nahm, 2008. "Shrinking Middle Class and Changing Income Distribution of Korea: 1995-2005," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 24, pages 345-365.
    20. Satya Chakravarty & Bhargav Maharaj, 2012. "Ethnic polarization orderings and indices," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 99-123, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Polarization; Social Unrest; Asymmetry; U-statistics; Jackknife;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:max:cprwps:160. 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: Katrina Fiacchi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cpsyrus.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.