Assessing Inequality

Providing basic foundations for measuring inequality from the perspective of distributional propertiesThis monograpg reviews a set of widely used summary inequality measures, and the lesser known relative distribution method provides the basic rationale behind each measure and discusses their interconnections. It also introduces model-based decomposition of inequality over time using quantile regression. This approach enables researchers to estimate two different contributions to changes in inequality between two time points. Key FeaturesClear statistical explanations provide fundamental statistical basis for understanding the new modeling frameworkStraightforward empirical examples reinforce statistical knowledge and ready-to-use proceduresMultiple approaches to assessing inequality are introduced by starting with the basic distributional property and providing connections among approachesThis supplementary text is appropriate for any graduate-level, intermediate, or advanced statistics course across the social and behavioral sciences, as well as individual researchers.