Choosing between two income distribution models typically involves testing two non-tested hypotheses, that is hypotheses such that one cannot be obtained as a special or limiting case of the other. Cox (1961, 1962) proposed a classical testing procedure based on the comparison of the maximised...

An important aspect of income distribution is the modelling of the data using an appropriate parametric model. This involves estimating the parameters of the models, given the data at hand. Income data are typically in grouped form. Moreover, they are not always reliable in that they may contain...

Using the GSOEP the paper analyses income mobility and inequality dynamics in Germany in the 90s at various levels of aggregation, ranging from a direct modelling of intra-distributional mobility using bivariate kernel density estimates to an examination of the moving cross-section

Non-parametric kernel density estimates are employed for an exploratory analysis of the distributional conseuqnces of the German tax-benefit system using GSOEP. The focuses is on the year 1991 and a detailed analysis is provided. Moreover, the anatomy of income inequality is thoroughly examined,...

We examine the specification and interpretation of the transfer principle in analysing income distributions. The early work by Pigou and Dalton on this topic left open the possibility of a variety of specifications and interpretation of the principle. The modern development of the theory since...

When families reform there are implications for the income distribution through a number of economic mechanisms: income sharing, changes in household need, reweighting the distribution. These changes are distinct from those that generate changes in factor income or transfers and may affect...

The economic analysis of income distribution and related topics makes extensive use of dominance criteria to draw inferences about welfare comparisons. However it is possible that - just as some inequality statistics can be very sensitive to extreme values - conclusions drawn from empirical...

Drawing on recent work concerning the statistical robustness of inequality statistics we examine the sensitivity of poverty indices to data contamination using the concept of the influence function. We show that poverty and inequality indices have fundamentally different robustness properties,...

The standard approach to the study of poverty assumes the existence of an ideal variable that captures the extent of deprivation. In this paper we postulate that poverty is involved with many dimensions. We use a latent variable framework to predict the extent of an individualamp;apos's hardship...

We examine the implications of three similar criteria that are commonly used in welfare economics and the analysis of inequality and poverty - income dominance, monotonicity and the Pareto principle - within the context of income-distribution comparisons. We show that whilst there is a simple...