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Vortrag
An Integrated Approach for Top-Corrected Ginis

Maria Metzing, Charlotte Bartels


Seventh Meeting of the Society for the Study of Economic Inequality (ECINEQ)
New York, USA, 17.07.2017 - 19.07.2017


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Abstract:
Household survey data provide a rich information set on income, household context and demographic variables, but tend to under report incomes at the very top of the distribution. Tax record data offer more precise information on top incomes at the expense of household context details and incomes of non-filers at the bottom of the distribution. We combine the benefits of the two data sources and develop an integrated approach for top-corrected Gini coefficients where we impute top incomes in survey data based on information from tax data on the upper end of the income distribution. Thereby, we can produce top-corrected Ginis reflecting the inequality of living standards of a population, in contrast to the established top-corrected Gini approach which is restricted to inequality of tax income over tax units.

Abstract

Household survey data provide a rich information set on income, household context and demographic variables, but tend to under report incomes at the very top of the distribution. Tax record data offer more precise information on top incomes at the expense of household context details and incomes of non-filers at the bottom of the distribution. We combine the benefits of the two data sources and develop an integrated approach for top-corrected Gini coefficients where we impute top incomes in survey data based on information from tax data on the upper end of the income distribution. Thereby, we can produce top-corrected Ginis reflecting the inequality of living standards of a population, in contrast to the established top-corrected Gini approach which is restricted to inequality of tax income over tax units.

Charlotte Bartels

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin in der Infrastruktureinrichtung Sozio-oekonomisches Panel



JEL-Classification: C46;C81;D31;H2
Keywords: Gini coefficient, Top income shares, Survey data, Tax record data, Pareto distribution
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