The Structure of the U.S. Income Distribution
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2024
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| _version_ | 1866929589772615680 |
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| author | Kosowsky, Conrad |
| author_facet | Kosowsky, Conrad |
| contents | I show that U.S. incomes follow a one-parameter family of probability distributions over more than fifty years of data. I compare statistical models of income, and I highlight the inverse-gamma distribution as a parsimonious model that matches data particularly well and has straightforward theoretical interpretations. However, despite having relatively few parameters, the inverse-gamma distribution still overfits income data. I establish a linear relationship between parameter estimates, and a one-dimensional model emerges naturally when I exploit this relationship. I conclude with theoretical remarks about the model. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_08826 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Structure of the U.S. Income Distribution Kosowsky, Conrad General Economics Economics I show that U.S. incomes follow a one-parameter family of probability distributions over more than fifty years of data. I compare statistical models of income, and I highlight the inverse-gamma distribution as a parsimonious model that matches data particularly well and has straightforward theoretical interpretations. However, despite having relatively few parameters, the inverse-gamma distribution still overfits income data. I establish a linear relationship between parameter estimates, and a one-dimensional model emerges naturally when I exploit this relationship. I conclude with theoretical remarks about the model. |
| title | The Structure of the U.S. Income Distribution |
| topic | General Economics Economics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.08826 |