The consumption literature uses adult equivalence scales to measure individual level inequality. This practice imposes the assumption that there is no within household inequality. In this paper, we show that ignoring consumption inequality within households produces misleading estimates of...

This paper examines the sensitivity of inequality and poverty measures to the choice of adult equivalence scales and the type of income unit examined. Comparisons are made using parametric equivalence scales, and income units include individuals, equivalent adults and households. The results are...

We use data from the Luxembourg Income Study in order to quantify the economy-wide monetary gains achieved by household-size economies due to within-household sharing of goods by individuals living in multimember households. In most countries out of the twenty countries we examine, we observe a...

Using a large, register-based panel data set we study gender differences in top incomes in Sweden over the period 1974-2013. We find that, while women are still a minority of the top decile group, and make up a smaller share the higher up in the distribution we move, their presence has steadily...

This paper aims at clarifying the notion "overall distributive effect" of an income component or a policy proposal and moreover discusses various approaches for assessing the distributional impact of the components of total income. We pay particular attention to the problem of evaluating the...

Two traditional options for reforming Ehegattensplitting, the joint taxation of married couples with full income splitting, are de facto income splitting (Realsplitting) or individual taxation with a transferable personal allowance. However, these proposals do not significantly reduce the...

Ein Realsplitting wie bei Geschiedenen oder eine Individualbesteuerung mit übertragbarem Grundfreibetrag sind traditionelle Reformoptionen für das Ehegattensplitting. Ihr Nachteil ist, dass sie die Grenzbelastungen des Einkommens von zweitverdienenden PartnerInnen kaum reduzieren und somit die...

We explore the extent to which LIS-data can be used to shed light on the presence of women in the top of the income distribution. We show developments of the share of women in top groups (P90-100 and P99-100) of the labour income distribution for 28 countries and, when possible, compare to...

The paper examines the development of incomes in Germany at different welfare levels, together with current trends in poverty. The analyses are based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, which provides detailed annual information on incomes starting in the mid-1980s....

Using a large, register-based panel data set we study gender differences in top incomes in Sweden over the period 1974–2013. We find that, while women are still a minority of the top decile group, and make up a smaller share the higher up in the distribution we move, their presence has...