All of us at LIS are delighted that the New York Times (NYT) chose to launch their exciting new venture — The Upshot — with an extensive report, Losing the Lead, based on the LIS data. The Upshot, led by Pulitzer Prize winning economics journalist David Leonhardt, premiered today. The NYT report includes additional information about the data and a note on the process that led them to LIS.
At the request of the NYT, a team at LIS — Janet Gornick, Thierry Kruten, and Branko Milanovic — produced entirely new results, drawing on 164 LIS datasets from 23 countries, covering the period 1979 to 2010. The NYT-LIS study deals with the distribution and growth of household income across countries.
The detailed results underlying the NYT report are available in a new database, known as the “LIS/New York Times Income Distribution Database.” This database is for public use; if used it should be cited by its full name. All results are based on the standard LIS variable, disposable household income (DHI), which includes income from wages, self-employment, and capital, plus social transfers, minus direct taxes paid. Our team produced the results in three formats (per capita, per equivalent unit, per household) and in two different currency measures (national currencies and 2005 international dollars). As explained in their report, the NYT converted the 2005 international dollars to 2014 international dollars, using the U.S. Consumer Price Index.
The file contains five sheets:
1 definitions
2 income at different percentiles of the distribution, in national currencies
3 mean income by decile, in national currencies
4 income at different percentiles of the distribution, in 2005 international dollars
5 mean income by decile, in 2005 international dollars
Dear LIS Colleagues and Friends, It is with distinct pleasure that I am sharing exciting news from the LIS Center, our satellite office at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). Noted American economist Paul Krugman, 2008 winner of the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, and a keynote speaker at [...]
The French economist Thomas Piketty (Paris School of Economics) will present a lecture on his new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. In this landmark work, Piketty argues that the main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine [...]
A new dataset from Spain, ES85 (Wave II), has been added to the LIS Database. The dataset is from the Household Budget Continuous Survey and is provided by the National Statistical Institute. In addition, ES80 (Wave I) and ES90 (Wave III) have been revised for consistency.
Two new datasets from Taiwan, TW07 (Wave VII) and TW10 (Wave VIII), have been added to the LIS Database. The datasets are from the Survey of Family Income and Expenditure (Taiwan area) and are provided by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. In addition, TW97, TW00, and TW05 (Waves IV – VI) have been [...]
The most recent issue of the Review of Income and Wealth is a special issue focusing on poverty, development, and behavioural economics. This issue was guest edited by Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University), Jukka Pirttilä (University of Tampere), and LIS Research Director, Markus Jäntti. The issue features the published version of “Income Inequality, Redistribution and Poverty: [...]
Two new datasets from Mexico, MX07 (Wave VII) and MX10 (Wave VIII), have been added to the LIS Database. The datasets are from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey and are provided by the National Statistical Institute. In addition, MX94, MX96, MX98 MX00, MX02, and MX04 (Waves II – VI) have been revised for consistency.