Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions

This paper develops a method to decompose differences across distributions of household income, based on counterfactual distributions that 'lie between' the actually observed distributions. Our approach decomposes differences between any two income distributions (or functionals such as ine...

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Main Authors: Bourguignon, Francois, Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Leite, Phillippe G.
Format: Journal Article
Language:EN
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5438
id okr-10986-5438
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-54382021-04-23T14:02:22Z Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions Bourguignon, Francois Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Leite, Phillippe G. Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions D310 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 This paper develops a method to decompose differences across distributions of household income, based on counterfactual distributions that 'lie between' the actually observed distributions. Our approach decomposes differences between any two income distributions (or functionals such as inequality or poverty measures) into shares due to price effects; occupational structure effects; and endowment effects. Comparing the household income distributions of the USA and Brazil in 1999, we find that most of Brazil's excess inequality (of 13 Gini points) is accounted for by underlying inequalities in the distributions of education and of non-labor income, notably pensions (between four and six Gini points each). Steeper returns to education in Brazil also make an important contribution (of two to five points). Differences in occupational structure and in racial and demographic composition are much less important. 2012-03-30T07:32:49Z 2012-03-30T07:32:49Z 2008 Journal Article Journal of Economic Inequality 15691721 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5438 EN CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Brazil
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language EN
topic Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions D310
Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
spellingShingle Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions D310
Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320
Economic Development: Human Resources
Human Development
Income Distribution
Migration O150
Bourguignon, Francois
Ferreira, Francisco H.G.
Leite, Phillippe G.
Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
geographic_facet Brazil
description This paper develops a method to decompose differences across distributions of household income, based on counterfactual distributions that 'lie between' the actually observed distributions. Our approach decomposes differences between any two income distributions (or functionals such as inequality or poverty measures) into shares due to price effects; occupational structure effects; and endowment effects. Comparing the household income distributions of the USA and Brazil in 1999, we find that most of Brazil's excess inequality (of 13 Gini points) is accounted for by underlying inequalities in the distributions of education and of non-labor income, notably pensions (between four and six Gini points each). Steeper returns to education in Brazil also make an important contribution (of two to five points). Differences in occupational structure and in racial and demographic composition are much less important.
format Journal Article
author Bourguignon, Francois
Ferreira, Francisco H.G.
Leite, Phillippe G.
author_facet Bourguignon, Francois
Ferreira, Francisco H.G.
Leite, Phillippe G.
author_sort Bourguignon, Francois
title Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
title_short Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
title_full Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
title_fullStr Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
title_full_unstemmed Beyond Oaxaca-Blinder: Accounting for Differences in Household Income Distributions
title_sort beyond oaxaca-blinder: accounting for differences in household income distributions
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5438
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