Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46542 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 3247
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Purchasing power adjusted incomes applied in cross-country comparisons are measured with bias. In this paper, we estimate the purchasing power parity (PPP) bias in Penn World Table incomes and provide corrected incomes. The bias is substantial and systematic: the poorer a country, the more its income tends to be overestimated. Consequently, international income inequality is substantially underestimated. Our methodological contribution is to exploit the analogies between PPP bias and the bias in consumer price index (CPI) numbers. The PPP bias and subsequent corrected incomes are measured by estimating Engel curves for food, which is an established method of measuring CPI bias.
JEL: 
D10
E31
F01
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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