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Problems with SWIID: the case of South Africa

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Abstract

The Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) provides estimates of inequality for South Africa for 1965 which are simply not plausible. Indeed the entire 95 % confidence interval is outside the plausible range. An examination of this case suggests that the SWIID’s promise to capture the “noise” associated with any estimate is unlikely to be warranted. The procedures will provide accurate confidence intervals only in cases where the original measurements are unbiased and the imputation model is reasonable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Martin Wittenberg

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  1. Martin Wittenberg
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Correspondence to Martin Wittenberg.

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Wittenberg, M. Problems with SWIID: the case of South Africa. J Econ Inequal 13, 673–677 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9306-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-015-9306-2

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