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Assessing Inequality
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Assessing Inequality



August 2010 | 160 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
This text reviews a set of widely used summary inequality measures, and the lesser known relative distribution method provides the basic rationale behind each and discusses their interconnections. It also introduces model-based decomposition of inequality over time using quantile regression. This approach enables researchers to estimate two different contributions to changes in inequality between two time points.

Key Features:

- Clear statistical explanations provide fundamental statistical basis for understanding the new modeling framework

- Straightforward empirical examples reinforce statistical knowledge and ready-to-use procedures

- Multiple approaches to assessing inequality are introduced by starting with the basic distributional property and providing connections among approaches

This supplementary text is appropriate for any graduate-level, intermediate, or advanced statistics course across the social and behavioural sciences, as well as individual researchers.

 
1. Introduction
 
2. PDFs, CDFs, Quantile Functions, and Lorenz Curves
 
3. Summary Inequality Measures
 
4. Choices of Inequality Measures
 
5. Relative Distribution Methods
 
6. Inference Issues
 
7. Analyzing Inequality Trends
 
8. An Illustrative Application: Inequality in Income and Wealth in the United States, 1991 - 2001
 
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