A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality

This article presents a new data set on inequality in the distributionof income. The authors explain the criteria they applied inselecting data on Gini coefficients and on individual quintilegroups' income shares. Comparison of the new data set with existingcompilations reveals that the data assembled here representan improvement in quality and a significant expansion in coverage,although differences in the definition of the underlying datamight still affect intertemporal and international comparability.Based on this new data set, the authors do not find a systematiclink between growth and changes in aggregate inequality. Theydo find a strong positive relationship between growth and reductionof poverty.