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Inequality by Population Groups and Income Sources
Author(s) -
Gradín Carlos
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/roiw.12470
Subject(s) - economics , inequality , economic inequality , population , income distribution , unemployment , demographic economics , recession , econometrics , income inequality metrics , distribution (mathematics) , mathematics , demography , economic growth , macroeconomics , sociology , mathematical analysis
I discuss a new approach which decomposes inequality into the contributions of population groups by income sources. I estimate a matrix with rows and columns which indicate different population groups and income sources, respectively, with each element indicating the marginal change in the inequality contribution of a group (as measured by the Recentered Influence Function) when an income source is added and with all contributions adding up to overall inequality. The approach can be used to analyze the contributions of groups and sources to the trend in inequality over time (or between distributions), disentangling the effect of changes in the composition of the population by groups and changes in their income distribution by sources. An empirical application characterizes the distributional change in Spain following the Great Recession, highlighting the disequalizing role of the massive increase in unemployment or the equalizing effect of social protection through different population groups.