Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database

swiid
inequality
measurement
Author

Frederick Solt

Published

May 3, 2020

  • Frederick Solt. 2020. “Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database.” Social Science Quarterly 101(3):1183-1199.

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    Abstract

    Objective: This article documents wide-ranging revisions to the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID), which seeks to maximize the comparability of income inequality estimates for the broadest possible coverage of countries and years. Methods: Two k-fold cross-validations, by observation and by country, are used to evaluate the SWIID’s success in predicting the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), recognized in the field as setting the standard for comparability. Results: The cross-validations indicate that the new SWIID’s estimates and their uncertainty are even more accurate than previous versions, extending its advantage in comparability over alternate income inequality datasets. Conclusion: Given its superior coverage and comparability, the SWIID remains the optimum source of data for broadly cross-national research on income inequality.

    Important Figure

    Figure 7: k-fold By-Observation Cross-Validation Results

    BibTeX Citation

    @article{Solt2020,
        author = {Solt, Frederick},
        journal = {Social Science Quarterly},
        number = {3},
        pages = {1183-1199},
        title = {Measuring Income Inequality Across Countries and Over Time: The Standardized World Income Inequality Database},
        volume = {101},
        year = {2020}}