CONVERGENCE OF THE G-7: A COINTEGRATION APPROACH

Income convergence among the G-7 countries was demonstrated using Theil's inequality (entropy) index. G-7 convergence was also found for three potential factors of influence on economic growth: government expenditure, investment expenditure, and industrial employment. Pairwise cointegration tests indicated that income inequality was cointegrated with the other three inequality measures for the time period of 1950-88. Finally, Johansen's I(2) multi-cointegration tests indicated that three of the four inequality measures (i.e. income, investment expenditure, and industrial employment) were cointegrated suggesting that there exists a long-run equilibrium between the inequality in income, investment expenditure, and industrial employment.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Extending Singh-Maddala Distribution

A new distribution, the exponentiated transmuted Singh-Maddala distribution (ETSM), is presented, and three important special distributions are illustrated. Some mathematical properties are obtained, and parameters estimation method is applied using maximum likelihood. Illustrations based on random numbers and a real data set are given

ESTIMATION OF INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND DETECTION OF SUBPOPULATIONS: AN EXPLANATORY MODEL

Inequality and polarization analyses are complementary but conceptually different. They are usually implemented independently in practic e, with different a priori assumptions and different tools. In this paper, we develop a unique method to study simultaneously these different and complementary concerns. Based on mixture models, the method we develop includes at the same time : an estimation of income distribution with no a priori assumptions - a decomposition in several homogeneous subpopulations - an explanatory model to study the structure of the income distribution.

Inequality and the GB2 income distribution

The generalized entropy class of inequality indices is derived for Generalized Beta of the Second Kind (GB2) income distributions, thereby providing a full range of topsensitive and bottom-sensitive measures. An examination of British income inequality in 1994/95 and 2004/05 illustrates the analysis.inequality, generalized entropy indices, generalized Beta of the second kind distribution, GB2 distribution, Singh-Maddala distribution, Dagum distribution

On the Bimodality of the Exact Distribution of the TSLS Estimator

Nelson and Startz (Econometrica, 58, 1990), Maddala and Jong (Econometrica, 60, 1992) and Wolgrom (Econometrica, 69, 2001) have shown that the density of the two-stage least squares estimator may be bimodal in a just identified structural equation. This paper further investigates the conditions under which bimodality may arise in a just over-identified model.Bimodality, Identification, Structural equation, Two Stage Least Squares.

A note on the modelling of hyper-inflations

In time series macroeconometric models, the first difference in the logarithm of a variable is routinely used to represent the rate of change of that variable. It is often overlooked that the assumed approximation is accurate only if the rates of change are small. Models of hyper-inflation are a case in point, since in these models, by definition, changes in price are large. In this letter, Cagan’s model is applied to Hungarian hyper-inflation data. It is then demonstrated that use of the approximation in the formation of the price inflation variable is causing an upward bias in the model’s key parameter, and therefore an exaggeration of the effect postulated by Cagan

Determinants of poverty in Kenya : a household level analysis

poverty;statistical analysis;measurement;Kenya;household surveys

Accounting for Poverty Differences between the United States, Great Britain, and Germany

We propose a framework for comparing the relationship between poverty and personal characteristics across countries (or across years), and use it to compare levels and patterns of relative poverty in the USA, Great Britain and Germany during the 1990s. The higher aggregate poverty rates in the USA and in Britain relative to Germany were mostly accounted for by higher poverty rates conditional on characteristics, which were only partly offset by a more favourable distribution of poverty-relevant characteristics, in particular higher employment rates.Poverty, Singh-Maddala Distribution