Understanding Twenty Years of Inequality and Poverty Trends in Russia

in Review of Income and Wealth (2022), 68(S1), 108-130

The distribution of income in Russia changed significantly over the past 25 years. This paper examines the factors that have been driving the fall in inequality and poverty over two recent decades in the ... [more ▼]

The distribution of income in Russia changed significantly over the past 25 years. This paper examines the factors that have been driving the fall in inequality and poverty over two recent decades in the Russian Federation. Changes in earnings from public and private sectors and pensions have been the main sources of changes in the income distribution between 1994 and 2015. Falling inequality and poverty were the result of a decrease in the dispersion of private sector earnings and an increase in the levels of pensions and public sector earnings. Neither the evolution of socio-demographic characteristics nor the level or structure of employment alone had big impacts. [less ▲]

Extreme values, means, and inequality measurement

in Review of Income and Wealth (2021), 67

We examine some ordinal measures of inequality that are familiar from the literature. These measures have a quite simple structure in that their values are determined by combinations of specific summary ... [more ▼]

We examine some ordinal measures of inequality that are familiar from the literature. These measures have a quite simple structure in that their values are determined by combinations of specific summary statistics such as the extreme values and the arithmetic mean of a distribution. In spite of their common appearance, there seem to be no axiomatizations available so far, and this paper is intended to fill that gap. In particular, we consider the absolute and relative variants of the range; the max-mean and the mean-min orderings; and quantile-based measures. In addition, we provide some empirical observations that are intended to illustrate that, although these orderings are straightforward to define, some of them display a surprisingly high correlation with alternative (more complex) measures. [less ▲]

Pro-Poorness Orderings

in Review of Income and Wealth (2019), 65(4), 785-803

An indicator of pro-poorness of a growth profile associated with a distribution of income is a measure of the extent to which growth is biased towards the poor. This paper proposes a general approach to ... [more ▼]

An indicator of pro-poorness of a growth profile associated with a distribution of income is a measure of the extent to which growth is biased towards the poor. This paper proposes a general approach to pro-poorness, called the progressive sequential averaging principle (PSA), relaxing the requirement of rank preservation due to growth. An endogenous benchmark for evaluating the growth of poor comes out naturally from this principle. A dominance relation on the basis of the above approach for a class of growth profiles is introduced through a simple device, called the PSA curve and its properties are examined in relation to the standard dominances in terms of the generalized Lorenz curve and the inverse generalized Lorenz curve. The paper concludes with an application to evaluate growth profiles experienced by the United States between 2001-2007 and 2007-2013. [less ▲]

The Intensity and Shape of Inequality: The ABG Method of Distributional Analysis

in Review of Income and Wealth (2016), 62(1), 5268

Inequality is anisotropic: its intensity varies by income level. We here develop a new tool, the isograph, to focus on local inequality and illustrate these variations. This method yields three ... [more ▼]

Inequality is anisotropic: its intensity varies by income level. We here develop a new tool, the isograph, to focus on local inequality and illustrate these variations. This method yields three coefficients which summarize the shape of inequality: a main coefficient, Alpha, which measures inequality at the median, and two correction coefficients, Beta and Gamma, which pick up any differential curvature at the top and bottom of the distribution. The analysis of a set of 232 microdata samples from 41 different countries in the LIS datacenter archive allows us to provide a systematic overview of the properties of the ABG (Alpha Beta Gamma) coefficients, which are compared both to a set of standard indices (Atkinson indices, generalized entropy, Wolfson polarization, etc.) and the GB2 distribution. This method also provides a smoothing tool that reveals the differences in the shape of distributions (the strobiloid) and how these have changed over time. [less ▲]

The distributional incidence of growth: a social welfare approach

in Review of Income and Wealth (2015), 61(3), 440-464

Multidimensional Poverty and Material Deprivation with Discrete Data

in Review of Income and Wealth (2013), 59

We propose a characterization of a popular index of multidimensional poverty which, as a special case, generates a measure of material deprivation. This index is the weighted sum of the functioning ... [more ▼]

We propose a characterization of a popular index of multidimensional poverty which, as a special case, generates a measure of material deprivation. This index is the weighted sum of the functioning failures. The important feature of the variables that may be relevant for poverty assessments is that they are discrete in nature. Thus, poverty measures based on continuous variables are not suitable in this setting and the assumption of a discrete domain is mandatory. We apply the measure to European Union member states where the concept of material deprivation was initiated and illustrate how its recommendations differ from those obtained from poverty measures based exclusively on income considerations. [less ▲]