Some are more equal than others: new estimates of global and regional inequality

Zsolt Darvas

No 1635, CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS from Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Abstract: * We compare four methodologies to estimate the global distribution of income and find that many methods work well, but the method based on two-parameter distributions is more accurate than other methods. This method is simpler, easier to implement and relies on a more internationally-comparable dataset of national income distributions than other approaches used in the literature to calculate the global distribution of income. We suggest a simulation-based technique to estimate the standard error of the global Gini coefficient. * Global income inequality among the citizens of 128 countries gradually declined in 1989-2013, largely due to convergence of income per capita, which was offset by a small degree the increase in within-country inequalities. The standard error of the global Gini coefficient is very small. * After 1994, market income inequality in the EU28 was at a level similar to market inequality in other parts of the world, but net inequality (after taxes and transfers) is at a much lower level and it declined between 1994 and 2008, since when it remained relatively stable. * Regional income inequality is much higher in Asia, Africa, the Commonwealth of Independent states and Latin America than in the EU28. In Asia, regional inequality has increased recent years, while it declined in the other three non-European regions.

Keywords: global and regional distribution of income; Gini coefficient; income inequality; development; simulation modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 D31 D63 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Some are more equal than others- new estimates of global and regional inequality (2016)
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