Stability of household income in European countries in the 1990's

This paper explores the patterns of change in the annual household income in the countries of the European Community during the years 1994-1999. The income is modelled by mixtures of multivariate log-normal distributions, and the mixture components are interpreted as representing one subpopulation with steady increments and others with various levels of volatility. The method is extended to models for a combination of log-normal and categorical variables. An index of income stability is defined for the countries. Throughout, we emphasize graphical summaries of the results.EM algorithm ; household income ; kernel estimation ; log-normal distribution ; mixture models

Mixture Models and Convergence Clubs

In this paper we argue that modeling the cross-country distribution of per capita income as a mixture distribution provides a natural framework for the detection of convergence clubs. The framework yields tests for the number of component distributions that are likely to have more power than "bump hunting" tests and includes a natural method of assessing the cross-component immobility necessary to imply a correspondence between components and convergence clubs. Applying the mixture approach to cross-country per capita income data for the period 1960 to 2000 we find evidence of three component densities in each of the nine years that we examine. We find little cross-component mobility and so interpret the multiple mixture components as representing convergence clubs. We document a pronounced tendency for the strength of the bonds between countries and clubs to increase. We show that the well-known "hollowing out" of the middle of the distribution is largely attributable to the increased concentration of the rich countries around their component means. This increased concentration as well as that of the poor countries around their component mean produces a rise in polarization in the distribution over the sample period.

Partially Identified Poverty Status: A New Approach to Measuring Poverty and the Progress of the Poor.

Poverty measurement and the analysis of the progress (or otherwise) of the poor is beset with difficulties and controversies surrounding the definition of a poverty line or frontier. Here, using ideas from the partial identification literature and mixture models, a new approach to poverty measurement is proposed which avoids specifying a frontier, the price is that an agent's poverty status is only partially identified. Invoking variants of Gibrat's law to give structure to the distribution of outcomes for homogeneous subgroups of a population within the context of a finite mixture model of societal outcomes facilitates calculation of the probability of an agent's poverty status. From this it is straightforward to calculate all the usual poverty measures as well as other characteristics of the poor and non poor subgroups in a society. These ideas are exemplified in a study of 47 countries in Africa over the recent quarter century which reveals among other things a growing poverty rate and a growing disparity between poor and non poor groups not identified by conventional methods.Poverty Frontiers, Mixture Models, Gibrat\'s law, Partial Identification

Income Inequality, Cohesiveness and Commonality in the Euro Area: A Semi-Parametric Boundary-Free Analysis

The cohesiveness of constituent nations in a confederation such as the Eurozone depends on their equally shared experiences. In terms of household incomes, commonality of distribution across those constituent nations with that of the Eurozone as an entity in itself is of the essence. Generally, income classification has proceeded by employing “hard”, somewhat arbitrary and contentious boundaries. Here, in an analysis of Eurozone household income distributions over the period 2006–2015, mixture distribution techniques are used to determine the number and size of groups or classes endogenously without resort to such hard boundaries. In so doing, some new indices of polarization, segmentation and commonality of distribution are developed in the context of a decomposition of the Gini coefficient and the roles of, and relationships between, these groups in societal income inequality, poverty, polarization and societal segmentation are examined. What emerges for the Eurozone as an entity is a four-class, increasingly unequal polarizing structure with income growth in all four classes. With regard to individual constituent nation class membership, some advanced, some fell back, with most exhibiting significant polarizing behaviour. However, in the face of increasing overall Eurozone inequality, constituent nations were becoming increasingly similar in distribution, which can be construed as characteristic of a more cohesive society

Measures of poverty and inequality in the countries and regions of EU

The European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is the main source of information about living standards and poverty in the member states of the European Union. It provides reliable statistics at national level but sample sizes do not allow reliable estimates at sub-national level, despite a rising demand from policy makers and local authorities. We provide a comprehensive map of median income, inequality (Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve) and poverty (poverty rates), at country and regional levels, based on the equivalized household income in all the countries in which EU-SILC is conducted. We focus on personal income distribution within regions as opposed to per capita income distribution across regions to give a deeper insight into regional disparities. Small-area estimation is applied to improve estimates in regions with small sample size. Uncertainty of such complex non-linear statistics is assessed by bootstrap methods. Household-level sampling weights are taken into account in both the estimates and their relative bootstrapped standard errors.European regional economics measurement; EU-SILC; Gini coefficient; Poverty rates; Small-area estimation.

Corrigendum: Child and adolescent behavior inventory (CABI): A new instrument for epidemiological studies and pre-clinical evaluation

Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI): A New Instrument for Epidemiological Studies and Pre-Clinical Evaluation Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 2013, 9: 51-61 Correction: Few corrections have been provided and replaced online in 15th, 20th, 21st and 22nd rows of the Appendix

mi: Missing Data Imputation and Model Checking, Research Public Software

Research Public Softwar

Un approccio multivariato allo studio economico e sociale dello sviluppo

Dottorato di ricerca in analisi economica, matematica e statistica dei fenomeni sociali. 10. Ciclo. Relatore Alighiero Erba. Coordinatore Domenico Da EmpoliConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome; Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale - P.za Cavalleggeri, 1, Florence / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Fitting regional income distributions in the European Union

Cross-sectional distribution of per capita (log) GDP across the European Union regions from 1977 to 1996 is analysed. Kernel density estimates reveal a multimodal structure of the distribution during the 1970s and early 1980s, and a tendency towards unimodality since the mid-1980s. The distribution is further analysed by a mixture of normal densities. A two well-separated component mixture fits the distributions in the 1970s and early 1980s. These two clusters tend to converge, supporting the idea of a process of catching up. In the mid-1990s, a small group of very rich regions is generated by a separated component