Regional income distributions are analyzed and tested for convergence and divergence in the 1970s. The methodology is the same as that recently used to show the almost complete convergence of the South and non-South. This paper disaggregates the non-South into major regions consisting of the...

This paper investigates interstate variation in income inequality. By avoiding inequality indices and focusing directly on the Lorenz curve, the authors provide a more general explanation of the differences in inequality. They find that mean family income, the standard deviation of years of...

This paper provides asymtotically distribution-free statistical inference procedures for generalized Lorenz curves. Given appropriate measures of income and the income recipient unit are chosen appropriately, the tests allow consensually valid statements regarding social welfare to be made from...

This paper examines income inequality in the Untied States over the period 1967-86 using recently developed tests for differences in Lorenz curves. The authors are able to rank eighteen of nineteen annual comparisons. In contrast, standard techniques are able to rank only twelve. These results...

Asymptotically distribution free statistical tests for comparing absolute and relative Lorenz and concentration curves are provided. The procedures do not require independent samples and can be used to test for marginal changes in income distributions. The tests are illustrated using a large...

This paper examines income inequality across nine countries using the Luxembourg Income Study data set. New statistical tests and comparability of data provide an exceptionally clear picture of relative income inequality. Only 4 comparisons out of a possible 108 cannot be ranked. In most cases,...

The relative effectiveness of the U.S. Food Stamp Program in reducing the incidence and depth of poverty is compared at a number of poverty lines across time. The analysis is based upon an extension of dominance methods for ordering poverty, recently developed statistical inference procedures,...

We examine the effect of background risk in the standard two-state, two-action principal-agent model. We analyse situations where the background risk is environmental (always present) and where the background risk is contractual (only present if the contract is accepted). With contractual...

In the wake of China’s enormous success transitioning to a market economy there is a widely held belief among researchers and policymakers that the country’s income distribution has become excessively unfair. Previous authors have argued ‘the perception of inequality is one of the key...