Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/281109 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Queen’s Economics Department Working Paper No. 1505
Publisher: 
Queen's University, Department of Economics, Kingston (Ontario)
Abstract: 
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.
Subjects: 
Income share standard errors
sample size
statistical inference
JEL: 
C12
C46
D31
D63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
353.09 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.