The Standardized World Income Inequality Database

Objective. Since 2008, the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) has provided income inequality data that seek to maximize comparability while providing the broadest possible coverage of countries and years. This article describes the current SWIID’s construction, highlighting differ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly Vol. 97; no. 5; pp. 1267 - 1281
Main Author: Solt, Frederick
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2016
Wiley (Variant)
Subjects:
Data
Data analysis
Economic models
Income
Income distribution
Income inequality
National income
Of General Interest
Luxembourg
ISSN:0038-4941, 1540-6237
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Objective. Since 2008, the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) has provided income inequality data that seek to maximize comparability while providing the broadest possible coverage of countries and years. This article describes the current SWIID’s construction, highlighting differences from its original version, and reevaluates the SWIID’s utility to cross-national income inequality research in light of recently available alternatives. Methods. Coverage of inequality data sets is assessed across country-years; comparability is evaluated in terms of success in predicting the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), recognized in the field as the gold standard in comparability, before those data are released. Results. The SWIID offers coverage double that of the next largest income inequality data set, and its record of comparability is three to eight times better than those of alternate data sets. Conclusions. As its coverage and comparability far exceed those of the alternatives, the SWIID remains better suited for broadly cross-national research on income inequality than other available sources.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-3C41KVCV-T
ArticleID:SSQU12295
istex:2D4900E5324EB5659A3864B57C64A7C007EE3268
http://myweb.uiowa.edu/fsolt
Replication materials are available at the author's website
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ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/ssqu.12295