IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ube/dpvwib/dp9905.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluating Theories of Income Dynamics: A Probabilistic Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Aebi
  • Klaus Neusser
  • Peter Steiner

Abstract

The paper proposes an approach to evaluate hypotheses about transition dynamics when only the distributions at two points in time are observed. Using principles of statistical mechanics, we show how to adjust in the "most probable" way a hypothesis such that it becomes compatible with the observed distributions. This adjustment procedure also allows to test hypotheses in a statistical sense. The test is based on the relative entropy and is equivalent to a likelihood ratio test. We apply our approach to compare the dynamics of the income distribution between men and women in the U.S. using PSID data.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Aebi & Klaus Neusser & Peter Steiner, 1999. "Evaluating Theories of Income Dynamics: A Probabilistic Approach," Diskussionsschriften dp9905, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    • Handle: RePEc:ube:dpvwib:dp9905
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.vwiit.ch/dp/dp9905.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yuichi Kitamura & Michael Stutzer, 1997. "An Information-Theoretic Alternative to Generalized Method of Moments Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(4), pages 861-874, July.
    2. Golan, Amos & Judge, George G. & Miller, Douglas, 1996. "Maximum Entropy Econometrics," Staff General Research Papers Archive 1488, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    3. White, Halbert, 1982. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Misspecified Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, January.
    4. Trede, Mark M., 1994. "Statistical inference in mobility measurement: Sex differences in earnings mobility," Discussion Papers in Econometrics and Statistics 4/94, University of Cologne, Institute of Econometrics and Statistics.
    5. Quah, Danny T., 1996. "Empirics for economic growth and convergence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1353-1375, June.
    6. Durlauf, Steven N. & Quah, Danny T., 1999. "The new empirics of economic growth," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 235-308, Elsevier.
    7. Shorrocks, A F, 1978. "The Measurement of Mobility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1013-1024, September.
    8. Atkinson, A B, 1997. "Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 297-321, March.
    9. Schluter, Christian, 1998. "Statistical inference with mobility indices," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 157-162, May.
    10. Quah, Danny T, 1996. "Convergence Empirics across Economies with (Some) Capital Mobility," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 95-124, March.
    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. Robert Aebi & Klaus Neusser & Peter Steiner, 2008. "Improving Models of Income Dynamics using Cross-Section-Information," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 144(II), pages 117-151, June.
    2. Erik Figueiredo & Flávio Ziegelmann, 2010. "The dynamics of the Brazilian income," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(2), pages 1249-1260.

    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. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay, 2003. "Convergence Club Empirics: Some Dynamics and Explanations of Unequal Growth across Indian States," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 69, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    2. Markus Jäntti & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2013. "Income Mobility," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 607, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. de Figueiredo, Erik Alencar & Ziegelmann, Flávio Augusto, 2010. "Estimating income mobility using census data," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(21), pages 4897-4903.
    4. Durlauf, Steven N., 2001. "Manifesto for a growth econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 65-69, January.
    5. K.P. Gluschenko (glu@nsu.ru ), 2010. "Income inequality in Russian regions: comparative analysis," Journal "Region: Economics and Sociology", Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of Siberian Branch of RAS, vol. 4.
    6. Maria Carmen Cuerva, 2011. "Dynamics of European agricultural productivity: An analysis of regional convergence," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 92(3), pages 237-258.
    7. Johnson, Paul A., 2000. "A nonparametric analysis of income convergence across the US states," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 219-223, November.
    8. Desmet, Klaus & Fafchamps, Marcel, 2006. "Employment concentration across U.S. counties," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 482-509, July.
    9. Ezcurra, Roberto, 2007. "Is there cross-country convergence in carbon dioxide emissions?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1363-1372, February.
    10. Vaona, Andrea, 2006. "Merging the purchasing power parity and the Phillips curve literatures: Regional evidence from Italy," Kiel Working Papers 1282, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    11. Magrini, Stefano, 1999. "The evolution of income disparities among the regions of the European Union," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 257-281, March.
    12. Seonyoung Park & Donggyun Shin, 2023. "Recent changes in the nature of the distribution dynamics of the US county incomes," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(7), pages 1048-1067, November.
    13. Bart Hobijn & Philip Hans Franses, 2000. "Asymptotically perfect and relative convergence of productivity," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(1), pages 59-81.
    14. Stefano Magrini, 2007. "Analysing Convergence through the Distribution Dynamics Approach: Why and how?," Working Papers 2007_13, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    15. Oded Galor, 2009. "Inequality and Economic Development: An Overview," Working Papers 2009-3, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    16. Danny Quah, 1996. "Aggregate and Regional Disaggregate Fluctuations," CEP Discussion Papers dp0275, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    17. M. Herrerías, 2012. "Weighted convergence and regional growth in China: an alternative approach (1952–2008)," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(3), pages 685-718, December.
    18. Magrini, Stefano, 2004. "Regional (di)convergence," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 62, pages 2741-2796, Elsevier.
    19. Stefano Magrini & Alessandro Spiganti, 2024. "A tale of two cities: Communication, innovation, and divergence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 390-413, January.
    20. Konstantin Gluschenko, 2010. "Methodologies of Analyzing Inter-Regional Income Inequality and Their Applications to Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp984, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income dynamics; large deviation; relative entropy; misspecification;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C50 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - General
    • C52 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Evaluation, Validation, and Selection
    • 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:ube:dpvwib:dp9905. 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: Franz Koelliker (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vwibech.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.