2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Economic statistical analysis of world income distribution

Research Project

Project/Area Number	14530034
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Economic statistics
Research Institution	Okayama University
Principal Investigator	YOSHIDA Tateo Okayama University, Faculty of Economics, Professor, 経済学部, 教授 (00150889)
Project Period (FY)	2002 – 2004
Keywords	Income distribution / Inequality / Lorenz dominance / World income distribution / Gini coefficient / Intermediate inequality
Research Abstract	This project has been conducted for the following two purposes. The first is to estimate the levels of inequality of the worldwide income distribution. By using (a)aggregate GDP data from the latest version of the Penn World Table compiled by A.Heston, R.Summers and B.Aten and (b)income distribution data selected from the World Income Inequality Database of WIDER/UNDP, we estimate the world income distribution for 168 countries for 1996. The results of calculation show that the Gini coefficient is 0.640 for the 168 countries, and it is 0.644 for the 167 countries excluding China. Our second purpose is to examine various inequality views and develop a theoretical framework for the treatment of them. In particular, we propose and characterize a new concept of intermediate inequality, which we refer to as the $eta$ inequality equivalence.

(4 results)