Income inequality in Romania: The exponential-Pareto distribution

Bogdan Oancea, Tudorel Andrei () and Dan Pirjol

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2017, vol. 469, issue C, 486-498

Abstract: We present a study of the distribution of the gross personal income and income inequality in Romania, using individual tax income data, and both non-parametric and parametric methods. Comparing with official results based on household budget surveys (the Family Budgets Survey and the EU-SILC data), we find that the latter underestimate the income share of the high income region, and the overall income inequality. A parametric study shows that the income distribution is well described by an exponential distribution in the low and middle incomes region, and by a Pareto distribution in the high income region with Pareto coefficient α=2.53. We note an anomaly in the distribution in the low incomes region (∼9,250 RON), and present a model which explains it in terms of partial income reporting.

Keywords: Income distribution; Inequality; Pareto distribution; Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:469:y:2017:i:c:p:486-498

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.11.094

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