Sample sizes for reliably estimating lower and upper income shares in income distribution analysis

Charles Beach

This paper uses distribution-free formulas for the asymptotic variances of sample quantile income shares - as typically published by statistical agencies as measures of the distribution of income inequality - to calculate how large a survey sample must be in order to estimate a more refined quantile breakdown for a given level of confidence. The approach is applied to decile and quintile earnings data to calculate required increases in sample size to obtain tail 5 percent quantal share estimates and to test changes in income shares. Simple rules of thumb are offered for such a required increase.

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Year of publication:	4-2023
Authors:	Beach, Charles M.
Publisher:	Kingston, Ontario, Canada : Department of Economics, Queen's University
Subject:	Income share standard errors \| sample size \| statistical inference \| Einkommensverteilung \| Income distribution \| Stichprobenerhebung \| Sampling \| Schätztheorie \| Estimation theory \| Schätzung \| Estimation \| Induktive Statistik \| Statistical inference