[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp12950.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Decomposing US Income Inequality à La Shapley: Race Matters, but Gender Too

Author

Listed:
  • Chantreuil, Frédéric

    (University of New Caledonia)

  • Fourrey, Kévin
  • Lebon, Isabelle

    (University of Caen)

  • Rebiere, Therese

    (CNAM, Paris)

Abstract
This paper is an application of a new Shapley income decomposition methodology, in which we isolate two subjective factors in income differences - race and gender - that contribute to income inequality within the population of blacks and whites in the United States over the period 2005-2017. We show that the purely racial contribution to income inequality as defined by the Gini index varies from 1% to 4% depending on the geographical administrative divisions used. Race tends to contribute more to inequality in the Western and Southern part of the country. Whatever the division, the share of income inequality associated with gender exceeds greatly that of race. While gender income inequality falls over time, income inequality associated with race tends to increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Chantreuil, Frédéric & Fourrey, Kévin & Lebon, Isabelle & Rebiere, Therese, 2020. "Decomposing US Income Inequality à La Shapley: Race Matters, but Gender Too," IZA Discussion Papers 12950, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12950
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp12950.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Bargain & Tim Callan, 2010. "Analysing the effects of tax-benefit reforms on income distribution: a decomposition approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Kenneth Couch, 2002. "Black-White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: a Decade of Progress," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(1), pages 31-41, January.
    3. Frank A. Cowell, 1980. "On the Structure of Additive Inequality Measures," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(3), pages 521-531.
    4. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(3), pages 789-865, September.
    6. Chantreuil, Frédéric & Lebon, Isabelle, 2015. "Gender contribution to income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 27-30.
    7. repec:adr:anecst:y:2011:i:101-102:p:02 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Frédéric Chantreuil & Alain Trannoy, 2013. "Inequality decomposition values: the trade-off between marginality and efficiency," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 83-98, March.
    9. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    10. Shorrocks, A F, 1982. "Inequality Decomposition by Factor Components," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 193-211, January.
    11. Bourguignon, Francois, 1979. "Decomposable Income Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 901-920, July.
    12. John C. H. Fei & Gustav Ranis & Shirley W. Y. Kuo, 1978. "Growth and the Family Distribution of Income by Factor Components," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(1), pages 17-53.
    13. Frédéric Chantreuil & Sébastien Courtin & Kevin Fourrey & Isabelle Lebon, 2019. "A note on the decomposability of inequality measures," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 53(2), pages 283-298, August.
    14. Arthur Charpentier & Stéphane Mussard, 2011. "Income inequality games," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 529-554, December.
    15. Mercedes Sastre & Alain Trannoy, 2002. "Shapley inequality decomposition by factor components: Some methodological issues," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 51-89, December.
    16. Lerman, Robert I & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1985. "Income Inequality Effects by Income," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 67(1), pages 151-156, February.
    17. Osnat Israeli, 2007. "A Shapley-based decomposition of the R-Square of a linear regression," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(2), pages 199-212, August.
    18. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    19. Frédéric Chantreuil & Alain Trannoy, 2011. "Inequality Decomposition Values," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 101-102, pages 13-36.
    20. Cowell, Frank A & Jenkins, Stephen P, 1995. "How Much Inequality Can We Explain? A Methodology and an Application to the United States," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(429), pages 421-430, March.
    21. Anthony Shorrocks, 2013. "Decomposition procedures for distributional analysis: a unified framework based on the Shapley value," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(1), pages 99-126, March.
    22. Gabriel Montes-Rojas & Lucas Siga & Ram Mainali, 2017. "Mean and quantile regression Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions with an application to caste discrimination," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(3), pages 245-255, September.
    23. Francesco Devicienti, 2010. "Shapley-value decompositions of changes in wage distributions: a note," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(1), pages 35-45, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chantreuil, Frédéric & Fourrey, Kévin & Lebon, Isabelle & Rebière, Thérèse, 2021. "Magnitude and evolution of gender and race contributions to earnings inequality across US regions," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 45-59.
    2. SOLOGON Denisa & ALMEIDA Vanda & VAN KERM Philippe, 2019. "Accounting for the distributional effects of the 2007-2008 crisis and the Economic Adjustment Program in Portugal," LISER Working Paper Series 2019-05, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    3. Stéphane Mussard & Michel Terraza, 2009. "Décompositions des mesures d'inégalité : le cas des coefficients de Gini et d'entropie," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 75(2), pages 151-181.
    4. Frank Cowell & Carlo Fiorio, 2011. "Inequality decompositions—a reconciliation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 509-528, December.
    5. Arthur Charpentier & Stéphane Mussard, 2011. "Income inequality games," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(4), pages 529-554, December.
    6. Frédéric Chantreuil & Sébastien Courtin & Kevin Fourrey & Isabelle Lebon, 2019. "A note on the decomposability of inequality measures," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 53(2), pages 283-298, August.
    7. Carlos Gradín, 2020. "Quantifying the contribution of a subpopulation to inequality an application to Mozambique," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(3), pages 391-419, September.
    8. Sebastian Leitner, 2015. "Drivers of wealth inequality in euro area countries," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 137, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    9. SOLOGON Denisa & VAN KERM Philippe & LI Jinjing & O'DONOGHUE Cathal, 2018. "Accounting for Differences in Income Inequality across Countries: Ireland and the United Kingdom," LISER Working Paper Series 2018-01, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    10. Teixidó Figueras, Jordi & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2012. "Ecological Footprint Inequality: A methodological review and some results," Working Papers 2072/203168, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Nerijus Černiauskas & Denisa M. Sologon & Cathal O’Donoghue & Linas Tarasonis, 2022. "Income Inequality and Redistribution in Lithuania: The Role of Policy, Labor Market, Income, and Demographics," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S1), pages 131-166, April.
    12. Carlos Gradín, 2021. "Inequality by Population Groups and Income Sources: Accounting for Inequality Changes in Spain During the Recession," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 481-508, June.
    13. Nerijus Cerniauskas & Denisa M. Sologon & Cathal O’Donoghue & Linas Tarasonis, 2020. "Changes in income inequality in Lithuania: the role of policy, labour market structure, returns and demographics," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 71, Bank of Lithuania.
    14. Peter Lindner, 2015. "Factor decomposition of the wealth distribution in the euro area," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 42(2), pages 291-322, May.
    15. Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Juan Duro, 2015. "International Ecological Footprint Inequality: A Methodological Review and Some Results," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(4), pages 607-631, April.
    16. Michele Giammatteo, 2007. "The bidimensional decomposition of inequality: A nested Theil approach," LIS Working papers 466, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. Carlos Gradín, 2018. "Quantifying the contribution of a subpopulation to inequality: An application to Mozambique," WIDER Working Paper Series 60, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Makarski, Krzysztof & Tyrowicz, Joanna, 2023. "Preference for redistribution during structural change with labor mobility frictions," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    19. Pedro Salas-Rojo & Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2019. "The distribution of wealth in the U.S. and Spain: the role of socio-economic factors," Working Papers 506, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Yawo Agbényég Noglo, 2014. "Monetary Inequality Among Households in Togo: An Illustration Based on the Decomposition of the Gini Coefficient Using the Shapley Value Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-151, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    income inequality; decomposition; Shapley value; racial discrimination; gender discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C71 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Cooperative Games
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12950. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.