Measuring middle-class decline in one and many attributes

Chiara GIGLIARANO () and Karl Mosler ()
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Chiara GIGLIARANO: Universita' Politecnica delle Marche, Dipartimento di Economia

No 333, Working Papers from Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Economia

Abstract: A new multivariate approach is introduced to identify the middle class of a society and to measure its possible decline. The middle class is a properly defined central region in attribute space that contains a fixed portion of the population. The decline of the middle class is measured by comparing the dispersion of the middle class. The use of minimum volume ellipsoids and different notions of central regions is discussed in one and several dimensions. An empirical illustration is given using German data on income and wealth.

Keywords: EVS; German Sample Survey of Income and Expen; central region; middle class; minimum volume ellipsoid; zonoid region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D63 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-11

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:anc:wpaper:333

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