Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Appraising cross-national income inequality databases: An introduction

  • Published:
The Journal of Economic Inequality Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In response to a growing interest in comparing inequality levels and trends across countries, a number of cross-national inequality databases are now available. These databases differ considerably in purpose, coverage, data sources, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality of documentation. This special issue reviews and compares eight such databases. Five are microdata-based: CEPALSTAT, Income Distribution Database (IDD), LIS, PovcalNet, and Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC); two are based on secondary sources: “All the Ginis” (ATG) and the World Income Inequality Database (WIID); and one is generated entirely through multiple-imputation methods: the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID). Although there is much agreement across these databases, there is also a non-trivial share of country/year cells for which substantial discrepancies exist. In some cases, different databases would lead users to radically different conclusions about inequality dynamics in certain countries and periods. The methodological differences that lead to these discrepancies often appear to be driven by a fundamental trade-off between a wish for broader coverage on the one hand, and for greater comparability on the other. These differences across databases place considerable responsibility on both producers and users: on the former, to better document and explain their assumptions and procedures, and on the latter, to understand the data they are using, rather than merely taking it as true because available.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acemoglu, D., Naidu, S., Restrepo, P., Robinson, J.A.: Democracy, redistribution and inequality. In: Atkinson, A.B., Bourguignon, F. (eds.) Handbook of Income Distribution, vol 2B. Chapter 21, pp 1885–1966. Elsevier, North-Holland, Amsterdam (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  • Afkar, R., Jellema, J., Wai-Poi, M.: Fiscal policy, redistribution, and inequality in Indonesia. In: Inchauste, G., Lustig, N. (eds.) The Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy: Experience from Developing Countries, World Bank, Washington DC (forthcoming)

  • All the Ginis Dataset. The World Bank. http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,contentMDK:22301380~pagePK:64214825~piPK:64214943~theSitePK:469382,00.html (2013)

  • Alvaredo, F., Atkinson, A.B., Piketty, T., Saez, E.: The World Top Incomes Database. http://topincomes.g-mond.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/ (2013)

  • Atkinson, A.B.: Inequality: What can be done? Harvard University Press, Cambridge (2015)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A.B., Bourguignon, F.: Handbook of Income Distribution, vols. 2A-2B. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A.B., Brandolini, A.: Promise and pitfalls in the use of “secondary” data-sets: income inequality in OECD Countries As a Case Study. J. Econ. Lit. 39(3), 771–799 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A.B., Marlier, E., Montaigne, F., Reinstadler, A.: Income poverty and income inequality. In: Atkinson, A.B., Marlier, E. (eds.) Income and Living Conditions in Europe, pp 101–131. Eurostat, Publications Office of the EU, Luxembourg (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A.B., Piketty, T.: Top Incomes: A Global Perspective. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Badgaiyan, N., Pirttila, J., Tarp, F.: Response to Professor Stephen Jenkins’ comments on the World Income Inequality Database (WIID). J. Econ. Inequal., this issue (2015)

  • Beneke, M., Lustig, N., Oliva, J.A.: El impacto de los impuestos y el gasto social en la desigualdady la pobreza en El Salvador, CEQ Working Paper 26, Tulane University (2015)

  • Bourguignon, F.: Appraising income inequality databases in Latin America. J. Econ. Inequal., this issue (2015)

  • Bourguignon, F.: The Globalization of Inequality. Princeton University Press, Princeton (2015)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bucheli, M., Lustig, N., Rossi, M., Amábile, F.: Social spending, taxes and income redistribution in Uruguay. In: Lustig, N., Pessino, C., Scott, J. (eds.) The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Social Spending in Latin America. Special Issue. Public Finance Review 42(3), 413–33 (2014)

  • Cabrera, M., Lustig, N., Morán, H.E.: Fiscal Policy, Inequality, and the Ethnic Divide in Guatemala. World Development 76(C), 263–279 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • CEPALSTAT: About CEPALSTAT. http://estadisticas.cepal.org/cepalstat/WEB_CEPALSTAT/acercaDe.asp?idioma=i (2013a)

  • CEPALSTAT: Estimation of Household Income. http://websie.eclac.cl/sisgen/SisGen_Badeinso_calculo_ingresos.asp?idioma=i (2013b)

  • CEPALSTAT: Note on Household Surveys. http://websie.eclac.cl/sisgen/SisGen_Badeinso_nota_encuestas_hogares.asp?idioma=i (2013c)

  • Deininger, K., Squire, L.: A new data set measuring income inequality. World Bank Econ. Rev. 10(3), 565–591 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Expert Group on Household Income Statistics [The Canberra Group]: Final Report and Recommendations. Canberra: Statistics Canada (2001)

  • Gasparini, L., Tornarolli, L.: A review of the OECD income distribution database. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Gibson, J., Beegle, K., De Weerdt, J., Friedman, J.: What does variation in survey design reveal about the nature of measurement errors in household consumption? Oxf. Bull. Econ. Stat. 77(3), 466–474 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GINI Growing Inequalities’ Impacts: http://gini-research.org/articles/home. (2015)

  • Gornick, J.C., Jantti, M., Munzi, T., Kruten, T.: Response to “the luxembourg income study” review by martin ravallion. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Higgins, S., Pereira, C.: The Effects of Brazil’s Taxation and Social Spending on the Distribution of Household Income. In: Lustig, N., Pessino, C., Scott, J. (eds.) The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Social Spending in Latin America. Special Issue. Public Finance Review 42(3), 346–67 (2014)

  • Inchauste, G., Lustig, N., Maboshe, M., Purfield, C., Woolard, I.: The Distributional Impact of Fiscal Policy in South Africa, Policy Research Working Paper 7194, World Bank, Washington, DC (2015)

  • International Monetary Fund: Fiscal monitor taking stock: A progress report on fiscal adjustment. Database (2014)

  • Jaramillo, M.: The Incidence of Social Spending and Taxes in Peru. In: Lustig, N., Pessino, C., Scott, J. (eds.) The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Social Spending in Latin America. Special Issue. Public Finance Review, 42(3), 291–412 (2014)

  • Jenkins, S.P.: World income inequality databases an assessment of WIID and SWIID, Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Jenkins, S.P., Van Kerm, P.: The measurement of economic inequality. In: Salverda, W., Nolan, B., Smeeding, T. (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lahoti, R., Jayadev, A., Reddy, S.G.: The global consumption and income project (GCIP): An introduction and preliminary findings. Available at SSRN 2480636 (2014)

  • Lustig, N., Higgins, S.: Commitment to Equity Assessment (CEQ): Estimating the Incidence of Social Spending, Subsidies and Taxes. Handbook. CEQ Working Paper No. 1, Center for Inter-American Policy and Research and Department of Economics, Tulane University and Inter-American Dialogue (2013)

  • LIS: Inequality and Poverty. http://www.lisdatacenter.org/data-access/key-figures/inequality-and-poverty (2013a)

  • LIS: The LIS Database: Guidelines. http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/our-lis-documentation-harmonisation-guidelines.pdf (2013b)

  • LIS: LIS variables. www.lisdatacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/our-lis-documentation-variables-list.pdf (2013c)

  • Milanovic, B.: Description of All the Ginis Dataset. http://worldbank.org/INTPOVRES/Resources/477227-1173108574667/Description_of_the_gini_dataset_2013.pdf The World Bank (2013)

  • OECD: Income distribution database: Gini, poverty, income, Methods and Concepts. OECD. http://www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm (2014a)

  • OECD: Metadata on OECD Income Distribution Database (IDD). http://www.oecd.org/social/soc/_README_IDD_Surveys&;Years.pdf (2014b)

  • OECD: OECD framework for statistics on the distribution of household income, consumption and wealth. OECD Publishing, Paris (2013a)

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD: OECD.Stat web browser user guide. http://stats.oecd.org/ModalHelp/OECD/WBOS%20User%20Guide%20(EN).pdf (2013b)

  • OECD: Quality review of the OECD database on household incomes and poverty and the OECD earnings database Part 1. http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECDIncomeDistributionQualityReview_PartI.pdf (2012a)

  • OECD: Quality review of the OECD database on household incomes and poverty and the OECD earnings database Part 2. http://www.oecd.org/els/soc/OECDIncomeDistributionQualityReview_PartII.pdf (2012b)

  • Ostry, J.D., Berg, A., Tsangarides, C.G.: Redistribution, inequality, and growth IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN1402. International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  • Paz Arauco, V., Molina, G. G., Yáñez Aguilar, E., Pozo, W.J.: Explaining Low Redistributive Impact in Bolivia. In: Lustig, N., Pessino, C., Scott, J. (eds.) The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Social Spending in Latin America. Special Issue. Public Finance Review, 42(3), 326–345 (2014)

  • Piketty, T.: Capital in the 21st century. Harvard University Press (2014)

  • Ravallion, M.: The luxembourg income study. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Sauma, P., Trejos, J. D.: Gasto Público Social, Impuestos, Redistribución del Ingreso y Pobreza en Costa Rica, CEQ Working Paper 18, Tulane University (2014)

  • Scott, J.: Redistributive Impact and Efficiency of Mexico’s Fiscal System. In: Lustig, N., Pessino, C., Scott, J. (eds.) The Redistributive Impact of Taxes and Social Spending in Latin America. Special Issue. Public Finance Review, 42(3), 368–390 (2014)

  • Smeeding, T., Latner, J.: PovcalNet, WDI and ‘All the Ginis’: A critical review. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Solt, F.: On the assessment and use of cross-national income inequality datasets. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • Solt, F.: The standardized world income inequality database. Work. Paper SWIID Version 5.0. http://myweb.uiowa.edu/fsolt/swiid/swiid.html (2014)

  • Solt, F.: Standardizing the world income inequality database. Soc. Sci. Q. 90(2), 231–242 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEDLAS and The World Bank): Methodology- Documents. http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/methodology.php (2013a)

  • Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEDLAS and The World Bank): SEDLAC- Institutional http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/institutional.php (2013b)

  • Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEDLAS and The World Bank): STATS. http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/statistics-detalle.php?idE=35 (2015)

  • United Nations: Provisional guidelines on statistics of the distribution of income, consumption and accumulation of households. studies in methods M 61. New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office (1977)

  • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Canberra group handbook on household income statistics, 2nd, Geneva (2011)

  • Wittenberg, M.: Problems with SWIID: the case of South Africa. Journal of Economic Inequality, this issue (2015)

  • World Bank. Data. http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm?0,3 (2013a)

  • World Bank. Indicators. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/all (2013b)

  • World Bank: PovcalNet: An online poverty analysis tool. http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm?0,0 (2014)

  • World Bank: Methodology. http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/index.htm?0,2(2013c)

  • World Income Inequality Database: Version 3.0B. UNU-WIDER. http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/WIID3-0B/en_GB/database/ (2014)

  • Younger, S.D., Khachatryan, A.: Fiscal Incidence in Armenia, Background Paper for World Bank Armenia Public Expenditure Review. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/05/19884965/armenia-public-expenditure-review-expanding-fiscal-envelope (2014)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco H. G. Ferreira.

Additional information

Disclosure: Ferreira is a Senior Adviser at the World Bank’s Research Department (which hosts PovcalNet), and Lustig is the Director of the (CEQ) Institute, whose data are used in this review.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

G. Ferreira, F.H., Lustig, N. & Teles, D. Appraising cross-national income inequality databases: An introduction. J Econ Inequal 13, 497–526 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9316-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9316-0

Keywords

Navigation