IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tul/wpaper/1613.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality Convergence: How Sensitive are Results to the Choice of Data?

Author

Listed:
  • Nora Lustig

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

  • Daniel Teles

    (Department of Economics, Tulane University)

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which estimates of inequality convergence are sensitive to the choice of welfare concept, inequality indicator, database, country coverage, and time period. Moreover, we explore the sensitivity of the estimated rate of convergence by testing five hypotheses using a series of pair-wise F-tests. The main takeaways are as follows. First, estimates appear to be more sensitive to the choice of welfare concept than to the choice of inequality measure. Second, different international inequality databases frequently produce different results, even when the countries, the welfare concept, the inequality measure, and the time period are held constant. Third, while there is a rather large amount of evidence that estimated rates of convergence differ by region and by time, even this result is sensitive to the database that is used to perform the analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Nora Lustig & Daniel Teles, 2016. "Inequality Convergence: How Sensitive are Results to the Choice of Data?," Working Papers 1613, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tul:wpaper:1613
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.tulane.edu/RePEc/pdf/tul1613.pdf
    File Function: First Version, October 2016
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Bourguignon, 2015. "The Globalization of Inequality," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10433.
    2. Nora Lustig, 2016. "Commitment to Equity Handbook. A Guide to Estimating the Impact of Fiscal Policy on Inequality and Poverty," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1301, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    3. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    4. Ravallion, Martin, 2003. "Inequality convergence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 351-356, September.
    5. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:4:y:2003:i:22:p:1-10 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Inequality and Growth," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1996, Volume 11, pages 11-92, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Roberto Ezcurra & Pedro Pascual, 2009. "Convergence in income inequality in the United States: a nonparametric analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(13), pages 1365-1368.
    8. Hongyi Li & Heng‐fu Zou, 1998. "Income Inequality is not Harmful for Growth: Theory and Evidence," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(3), pages 318-334, October.
    9. Pei-Chien Lin & Ho-Chuan Huang, 2012. "Convergence in income inequality? evidence from panel unit root tests with structural breaks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 153-174, August.
    10. Nora Lustig & Carola Pessino & John Scott, 2014. "The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay: Introduction to the Special Issue," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(3), pages 287-303, May.
    11. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:15:y:2007:i:15:p:1-9 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Nora Lustig & Carola Pessino & John Scott, 2013. "The Impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay: An Overview," Working Papers 1313, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    13. Michael Bleaney & Akira Nishiyama, 2003. "Convergence in income inequality: differences between advanced and developing countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(22), pages 1-10.
    14. Quah, D., 1990. "Galton'S Fallacy And The Tests Of The Convergence Hypothesis," Working papers 552, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    15. Fábio Gomes, 2007. "Convergence in Income Inequality: the Case of Brazilian Municipalities," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 15(15), pages 1-9.
    16. Ho, Tsung-wu, 2015. "Income inequality may not converge after all: Testing panel unit roots in the presence of cross-section cointegration," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 68-79.
    17. Lin, Pei-Chien & Huang, Ho-Chuan (River), 2012. "Inequality convergence revisited: Evidence from stationarity panel tests with breaks and cross correlation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 316-325.
    18. Mr. Jonathan David Ostry & Mr. Andrew Berg & Mr. Charalambos G Tsangarides, 2014. "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2014/002, International Monetary Fund.
    19. Mark W. Frank, 2009. "Inequality And Growth In The United States: Evidence From A New State‐Level Panel Of Income Inequality Measures," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 55-68, January.
    20. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2013. "The impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 13, Tulane University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2013.
    21. Partridge, Mark D. & Rickman, Dan S. & Levernier, William, 1996. "Trends in U.S. income inequality: Evidence from a panel of states," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 17-37.
    22. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Democracy, Redistribution and Inequality," NBER Working Papers 19746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. repec:bla:rdevec:v:2:y:1998:i:3:p:318-34 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Jonathan David Ostry & Andrew Berg & Charalambos G Tsangarides, 2014. "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 14/02, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Frederick Solt, 2016. "The Standardized World Income Inequality Database," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1267-1281, November.
    26. repec:bla:scandj:v:95:y:1993:i:4:p:427-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Jamie S. Partridge & Mark D. Partridge & Dan S. Rickman, 1998. "State Patterns In Family Income Inequality," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 16(3), pages 277-294, July.
    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. 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.
    2. Francesco Savoia & Ioannis Bournakis & Mona Said & Antonio Savoia, 2024. "Regional income inequality in Egypt: evolution and implications for Sustainable Development Goal 10," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 17-33, January.
    3. Francesco Savoia, 2020. "Income Inequality Convergence Across EU Regions," LIS Working papers 760, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    4. Savoia, Francesco, 2024. "Income inequality convergence among EU regions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Mauricio de Rosa & Joan Vilá, 2020. "Distributing the missing third: growth and falling inequality in Uruguay 2009-2016," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 20-05, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    6. Mauricio De Rosa & Joan Vilá, 2022. "Beyond tax-survey combination: inequality and the blurry household-firm border," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 22-10, Instituto de Economía - IECON.

    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. Nicholas Apergis & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2015. "Convergence in Income Inequality: Further Evidence from the Club Clustering Methodology across the U.S. States," Working Papers 201539, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    2. Nicholas Apergis & Christina Christou & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2018. "Convergence in Income Inequality: Further Evidence from the Club Clustering Methodology across States in the U.S," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 24(2), pages 147-161, May.
    3. Kris Ivanovski & Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & John Inekwe, 2020. "Convergence in Income Inequality Across Australian States and Territories," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 127-142, February.
    4. Omid Ranjbar & Tsangyao Chang & Chien-Chiang Lee, 2016. "Income Convergence toward USA: New Evidences for Latin and South American Countries," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 20(2), pages 141-162, Spring.
    5. Alfonso Mendoza-Velázquez & Daniel Ventosa-Santaulària & Vicente Germán-Soto, 2019. "Mexico’s inter-regional inequality: a convergent process?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1683-1705, May.
    6. Ho, Tsung-wu, 2015. "Income inequality may not converge after all: Testing panel unit roots in the presence of cross-section cointegration," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 68-79.
    7. Arčabić, Vladimir & Kim, Kyoung Tae & You, Yu & Lee, Junsoo, 2021. "Century-long dynamics and convergence of income inequality among the US states," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. Ademola Obafemi Young, 2019. "Growth Impacts of Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence From Nigeria," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 226-262, December.
    9. Adnen Ben Nasr & Mehmet Balcilar & Rangan Gupta & Seyi Saint Akadiri, 2020. "Asymmetric effects of inequality on real output levels of the United States," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 47-69, March.
    10. Brida, Juan Gabriel & Carrera, Edgar J. Sanchez & Segarra, Verónica, 2020. "Clustering and regime dynamics for economic growth and income inequality," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 99-108.
    11. Samvel S. Lazaryan & Mariya A. Chernotalova, 2017. "Global Risk of Rising Inequality," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 4, pages 34-46, August.
    12. 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.
    13. Chambers, Dustin & Dhongde, Shatakshee, 2016. "Convergence in income distributions: Evidence from a panel of countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 262-270.
    14. Adnen Ben Nasr & Mehmet Balcilar & Rangan Gupta & Seyi Saint Akadiri, 2018. "Asymmetric Effects of Inequality on Per Capita Real GDP of the United States," Working Papers 201820, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    15. Francesco Savoia, 2020. "Income Inequality Convergence Across EU Regions," LIS Working papers 760, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    16. -, 2014. "Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe 2014: desafíos para la sostenibilidad del crecimiento en un nuevo contexto externo," Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 36970 edited by Cepal.
    17. -, 2014. "Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2014: Challenges to sustainable growth in a new external context," Estudio Económico de América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 37033 edited by Eclac.
    18. Andrew Berg & Jonathan D. Ostry & Charalambos G. Tsangarides & Yorbol Yakhshilikov, 2018. "Redistribution, inequality, and growth: new evidence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 259-305, September.
    19. Devdatta Ray & Mikael Linden, 2018. "Health, inequality and income: a global study using simultaneous model," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, December.
    20. Kutuk, Yasin, 2022. "Inequality convergence: A world-systems theory approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 150-165.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality convergence; Inequality databases; Sensitivity analysis.;
    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
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:tul:wpaper:1613. 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: Kerui Geng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/detulus.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.