TRUE VERSUS MEASURED THEIL INEQUALITY

This article deals with several problems that arise when the Theil coefficient of income inequality is computed in practice.
Aggregation of income data into brackets leads to an underestimation of the true Theil inequality, which is defined as the value of the coefficient as computed from individual income data. The assumption that the individual incomes are distributed according to a linear density function within the income brackets is suggested as a method to estimate this aggregation error. Calculations show that this method approximates the true aggregation error reasonably well.
Several methods are discussed concerning the treatment of negative incomes. In particular one can construct an income bracket that contains both negative and positive incomes and which in the summation formula is weighted with zero weight. Of all methods this procedure using the assumption of a linear density function within brackets, yields the highest value of the Theil coefficient and is thus preferred to the other alternatives.     

Extremal properties of the Theil and Gini measures of inequality

Quality & Quantity - Two popular inequality measures used in the study of income and wealth distributions are the Gini (G) and Theil (T) indices. Several bounds on these inequality measures are...     

FACTORS OF INTERREGIONAL INCOME INEQUALITY IN POSTWAR JAPAN: THEIL DECOMPOSITION AND GAP ACCOUNTING ANALYSES

This study empirically identifies some factors of interregional income inequality in postwar Japan during the period 1955–2005 using a decomposition analysis with a Theil L index and a gap accounting analysis. One major empirical finding was that interregional inequality in per capita GDP during the period 1955–2005 showed a double peaked M‐shaped curve, which was predominantly attributed to interregional inequality in labor productivity. The sectoral decomposition analysis revealed that the factors that caused fluctuations in interregional inequality in labor productivity differed from year to year. The fluctuations during the period 1960–1980 were caused by an intersectoral equilibrating process between the tertiary sector and other sectors, whereas that the fluctuations that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted from interregional disequilibrating and equilibrating processes within the tertiary sector.     

De ontwikkeling van de inkomensongelijkheid gemeten volgens informatietheoretische maatstaven

Summary Some years ago Theil introduced new inequality measures, originating from information theory. He applied them 8.0. to income distributions in the United States. This inequality coefficient is - in contrast to Pareto's constant - based on the whole income distribution. Moreover, the inequality can be disaggregated into inequalities for groups of population. The numerical value of the inequality depends on the chosen class intervals; this may be inconvenient when making comparisons between countries, between different periods and the like. Hence we suggest an appropriate standardizing procedure. The inequality of income distributions has been calculated for the period 1950–1964 and a cornparison is made with Pmm's constant. The investigation relates to three groups of population: wage earners, self employed and others. A remark is made about between-province inequalities.     

The estimation of a family of measures of economic inequality

This paper shows that a broad class of measures of inequality (including those of Herfindahl and Theil) can be readily (and accurately) estimated from grouped data. The methods are similar to those developed earlier by the author for estimating the Gini index. The results are illustrated by estimating Thiel's index from tax data and show that the standard textbook grouping method of assuming that all incomes in any class are at the mid-point can lead to serious error in the resulting estimate of inequality.     

Workers or Employers: Who is Shaping Wage Inequality?

An extensive micro data set matching firms, establishments and their employees, is used to study the determinants of earnings inequality in Portugal and its evolution from 1983 to 1992, with the Theil index, its decomposition, and the decomposition of its change as tools of analysis. The relevance of both worker and employer attributes in shaping earnings inequality and its trend is quantified. The impact of the firm on wage inequality in a European country is compared to the situation in the USA, and the results suggest that a more regulated and centralized European bargaining system might reduce the scope for firm action. A profile of an economy undergoing modernization, where rising labour market inequality signalled the lack of an adequate labour force, can be drawn, with the minimum wage having nonetheless a certain narrowing effect on the earnings distribution.     

Introduction to internally consistent modeling,aggregation, inference,and policy

This special issue of the Journal of Econometrics honors William A. Barnett’s exceptional contributions to unifying economic theory with rigorous statistical inference to interpret economic data and inform public policy. It is devoted to papers that advance microeconometrics, macroeconometrics, and financial econometrics to build models to interpret evidence.     

Recent Ph.D. Theses In The Netherlands

Statistica Neerlandica has decided to encourage the reporting on theses in probability, statistics, biometrics, econometrics and operations research, submitted to Dutch universities. The main purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical impostance, the methods used and the results presented in recent theses. It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.     

铝期货市场的信息传递及其定价能力的比较研究——基于上海与伦敦铝期货市场的实证检验

借助现代计量经济分析方法,对上海期货交易所和伦敦金属交易所铝期货价格之间的联系以及两个市场在价格发现中的贡献份额进行了实证研究。研究结果表明:两个市场铝期货价格之间存在协整关系,期货价格之间相互影响、相互作用,一个市场的价格信息将对另外一个相关市场的价格波动产生影响;伦敦期铝市场在国际定价中处于主导地位,上海市场的定价能力次之。     

Recent PH.D. Theses in The Netherlands

Statistica Neerlandica has decided to encourage the reporting on theses in probability, statistics, biometrics, econometrics and operations research, submitted to Dutch universities. The main purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods used and the results presented in recent theses. It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.     

Panel Data Unit Roots and Cointegration: An Overview

Recent developments in the field of the econometrics of panel data with non-stationary series are reviewed and interpreted. In particular, we discuss tests for unit roots and cointegration, and the roles of mean and variance correction, non-parametric correction and full modification for the construction of these tests and estimators. A discussion of the key contributions of the papers in this special issue is placed within the framework of the current literature and areas for further development are proposed.     

THE ESSENCE OF THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL

In a lecture in November 2008, Professor Huerta de Soto set out the key contributions of the Austrian School to economic thought.     

Recent Ph.D. Theses in the Netherlands

Statistica Neerlandica encourages the reporting on theses in probability, statistics, biometrics, econometrics, and operations research, submitted to Dutch universities. The main purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods used, and the results presented in recent theses. It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.
Notes (not exceeding 300 words) should be sent to the column editor.     

RECENT PH. D. THESES IN THE NETHERLANDS

In this section, Statistica Neerlandica reports recent doctorates in statistics, biometrics, econometrics and operations research, conferred by Dutch universities. The main purpose of these reports is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods and the results of recent theses.
Most Dutch theses are available for distribution; readers who are interested in obtaining a copy should contact the author.
Ph.D. thesis supervisors are invited to submit contributions to this section to G. DE LEVE, Instituut voor Actuariaat en Econometric, 23 Jodenbreestraat, 101 1 NH Amsterdam.     

Recent Ph.D. Theses in the Netherlands

Statistica Neerlandica has decided to encourage the reporting on theses in probability, statistics, biometrics, econometrics, and operations research, submitted to Dutch universities. The main purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods used, and the results presented in recent theses. It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.
Notes (not exceeding 300 words) should be sent to the column editor.     

Recent Ph.D. Theses in the Netherlands

Statistica Neerlandica encourages the reporting on theses in probability, statistics, biometrics, econometrics, and operations research, submitted to Dutch universities. The main purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods used, and the results presented in recent theses. It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.
Notes (not exceeding 300 words) should be sent to the column editor.     

Ragnar Frisch: Econometrics and the Political Economy of Planning

A bstract . Ragnar Frisch's main contributions are in the field of econometrics. This paper discusses Frisch's contribution to the political economy of planning. It argues that although planning was not a special feature of classical political economy , Frisch nonetheless shared in the broader social and moral aspirations of political economy; for Frisch, these were the ultimate objectives of planning. To this end the paper discusses Frisch's approach to the formalization of society's preferences. This approach involves an interactive mechanism in which politicians and technical experts participate. Against the political economy aspirations of Frisch, some behavioral shortcomings of his framework are briefly discussed.     

RECENT PH.D.THESES IN THE NETHERLANDS

Statitica Neerlandica had decided to encourage the reporting on theses in statistics, biometrics, econometrics and operations research, submitted at dutch universities.
The man purpose of this section is to inform the reader briefly of the nature, the practical and theoretical importance, the methods used and the results presented in recent theses.
It is understood that contributions to this section meet with the approval of the supervisor(s) of the thesis.
Notes (in English and not exceeding 300 words) should be sent to the column editor. G. de Leve, Instituut voor Actuariaat en Econometrie, Jodenbreestraat 23, 1011 NH Amsterdam.     

Ungleichheitsaversion in Prinzipal-Agenten-Beziehungen

Principal-agent theory traditionally presumes purely self-interested individuals. In recent literature, however, we have observed an increasing number of contributions, which abstain from this presumption and account for social preferences. One prominent approach in this context is inequality aversion. In this paper, we provide an introduction to inequality aversion and discuss applications and results compared to traditional principal-agent models.     

计量经济学理论与案例分析的整合

计量经济学应用性和实践性的特点与案例教学法是一致的,本文基于案例分析对计量经济学教学积极而重要的作用,分析了当前计量经济学案例分析在内容、方式、支持资源和成绩评定方式等方面遇到的问题,提出解决问题必须对计量经济学基本理论和模型进行精致化和精细化的处理,必须选取恰当案例保证案例分析效果,而提升教师专业素质是实现计量经济学人才培养目标的保障。