Advances in the Measurement of Discrimination, Inequality and Mobility - MeDIM

Coordinating Institution: CEPS / INSTEAD
Other Partner(s): Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education, Prague (CZ) , Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (D) , University of Essex (GB)
From: 01/03/2007
To: 28/02/2010
Budget: 329,821.00€
Contact(s): Van Kerm Philippe

Progress Summary 2009

MeDIM is a project for economic and quantitative research in the measurement of discrimination, inequality and economic mobility. The project is at the cross-road of labour economics, welfare economics, and micro-econometrics. The objective is to conceive or refine original micro-econometric methods of analysis, develop application instruments (software), and implement the techniques using survey data for Luxembourg and other European Countries in applications focusing on the socio-economic situation of women and immigrants.

Most of the research in 2009 has been devoted to developing a new measure of wage differentials that takes into account not only differences in mean pay, but also differences in inequality and risk in the wage distribution. This research involved the development of an original method for estimation of conditional wage distributions with covariates and endogenous labour market participation. Estimation on survey data for Luxembourg suggested that women are not compensated for lower wages by lower risk, on the contrary they tend to be penalized twice with both lower mean wages and more inequality.

In a second large project, we analysed the relationship between wages and body size in Europe, that is, we attempted to identify if there is a wage penalty to obesity. We hypothesize that it is deviation from a “normal” body size that may be penalized. In the absence of any prior knowledge of what may constitute the norm, and to allow for possible penalties for both overweight and underweight, we developed original semi-parametric methods that allow to identify nonlinearities without much parametric assumptions. We found that there is a penalty to obesity and, to a lower extend underweight, but that the magnitude is relatively small.

We also find that there is a stronger effect (premium) of height, independently on obesity. Other activities involved developing software packages for estimating measures of wage differentials and S-Gini measures of inequality. New chapters have also been initiated, in particular, one to investigate the effect of broader measures of physical appearance on wages and one to exploit propensity score reweighting techniques to enhance estimation of wage differentials.

Refereed Scientific Publications
  • Jenkins S. P. & Van Kerm P. (2009), 'The Measurement of Economic Inequality' , in Salverda, Nolan & Smeeding (Eds.), Oxford Handbook on Economic Inequality, Oxford University Press.
  • Sierminska E. & Frick J. R. & Grabka M. (forthcoming), 'Examining the gender wealth gap', Oxford Economic Papers.
  • Van Kerm P. (2009), 'Income mobility profiles', Economics Letters, 102, 93-95.
Other Publications
  • Bicakova A. & Sierminska E. (2008), 'Mortgage Market Maturity and Homeownership Inequality among Young Households: A Five-Country Perspective', DIW Discussion Paper 778, Berlin.
  • Jenkins S. P. & Van Kerm P. (2008), 'Has income growth in Britain become more pro-poor?', Paper presented at the 30th General conference of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth.
  • Jenkins, S. P. and Van Kerm, P. (2009), ‘dsginideco: Decomposition of inequality change into pro-poor growth and mobility components', v1.0, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Pi Alperin M. (2008), 'A comparison of multidimensional deprivation characteristics between natives and immigrants in Luxembourg', IRISS Working Paper 2008-14, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Pi Alperin, M. N. and Van Kerm, P. (2009), ‘mdepriv: Synthetic indicators of multiple deprivation', v1.0, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Sierminska E. & Frick J. R. & Grabka M. (2008), 'Examining the gender wealth gap in Germany', IZA Discussion Paper 3575, Institute for the Study of Labor, Bonn.
  • Van Kerm P. (2009), 'Generalized measures of wage differentials', IRISS Working Paper 2009-08, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Van Kerm, P. (2009), ‘sgini: Generalized Gini and Concentration coefficients (with factor decomposition) in Stata', v1.0, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Van Kerm, P. (2009), ‘wdiscrim: Earnings discrimination statistics', v1.0, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
  • Van Kerm P. & Fusco A. (2008), 'La progression du niveau de vie entre 2003 et 2006', Vivre au Luxembourg no.48, Chroniques de l’enquête PSELL-3/2006, CEPS/INSTEAD, Differdange, Luxembourg.
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