Misperceptions and mismeasurements: An analysis of subjective economic inequality

Aboozar Hadavand ()
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Aboozar Hadavand: School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University

No 449, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: This paper focuses on an important aspect of economic inequality – the question of how people perceive inequality and whether these perceptions deviate in any meaningful way from statistical measures of inequality. Using a novel approach I investigate whether individuals across different countries are able to correctly estimate the shape of income distribution of the country where they reside. I find that perceptions of inequality are frequently shaped by reference groups such as those formed according to educational attainment, age, and gender.

Keywords: Income inequality; perception; reference groups (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 D83 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2017-449

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