Semi-Structural Econometric Methods for the Analysis of Inequality

This project aims to critically evaluate existing statistical tools for measuring inequality and develop new methods to provide robust structural interpretations, enhancing policy insights for reducing inequality.

Subsidie
€ 1.580.832
2025

Projectdetails

Introduction

Rising income inequality and related disparities, accompanied by high persistence of socioeconomic outcomes across generations, have become a major public policy concern around the world. Documenting inequality, understanding its determinants, and evaluating policies with the goal of reducing inequality is an important part of empirical research in economics.

Statistical Tools and Their Limitations

Widely used statistical tools for quantifying the importance of various drivers of inequality and intergenerational mobility have produced influential findings that are directly, and often informally, interpreted in public and political debates. In these debates, causal and economic meaning tends to be attached to the stylized statistical findings without the use of empirically tested structural models.

Project Objectives

  1. Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
    The first objective of the proposed project is to show theoretically and empirically that these widely used statistical tools generate findings that permit a structural economic interpretation only under very strong assumptions. If these assumptions fail, then the structural interpretation may be misleading, and the findings may not in fact measure what they purport to measure.

  2. Development of New Statistical Tools
    The second objective is to develop new, robust statistical tools that are guaranteed to produce findings with a structural interpretation while retaining the attractive features of popular existing approaches, e.g., weak assumptions and data requirements.

Expected Outcomes

Through substantive economic applications of the new statistical methods, the project is expected to discover powerful new insights about what drives inequality and what are effective policies for reducing it. In addition, it is expected to provide a new interpretation of a vast and hugely influential body of empirical research, which has shaped our understanding of inequality and has informed policy decisions around the world.

Financiële details & Tijdlijn

Financiële details

Subsidiebedrag€ 1.580.832
Totale projectbegroting€ 1.580.832

Tijdlijn

Startdatum1-10-2025
Einddatum30-9-2030
Subsidiejaar2025

Partners & Locaties

Projectpartners

  • LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITAET MUENCHENpenvoerder

Land(en)

Germany

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