A Unified Approach to Estimating and Testing Income Distributions With Grouped Data

We propose a unified approach that is flexibly applicable to various types of grouped data for estimating and testing parametric income distributions. To simplify the use of our approach, we also provide a parametric bootstrap method and show its asymptotic validity. We also compare this approach with existing methods for grouped income data, and assess their finite-sample performance by a Monte Carlo simulation. For empirical demonstrations, we apply our approach to recovering China's income/consumption distributions from a sequence of income/consumption share tables and the U.S. income distributions from a combination of income shares and sample quantiles. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

A new generalized Weibull distribution in income economic inequality curves

Researchers have been developing various extensions and modified forms of the Weibull distribution to enhance its capability for modeling and fitting different data sets. In this note, we investigate the potential usefulness of the new modification to the standard Weibull distribution called odd Weibull distribution in income economic inequality studies. Some mathematical and statistical properties of this model are proposed. We obtain explicit expressions for the first incomplete moment, quantile function, Lorenz and Zenga curves and related inequality indices. In addition to the well-known stochastic order based on Lorenz curve, the stochastic order based on Zenga curve is considered. Since the new generalized Weibull distribution seems to be suitable to model wealth, financial, actuarial and especially income distributions, these findings are fundamental in the understanding of how parameter values are related to inequality. Also, the estimation of parameters by maximum likelihood and moment methods is discussed. Finally, this distribution has been fitted to United States and Austrian income data sets and has been found to fit remarkably well in compare with the other widely used income models.     

收入、预期寿命和社会养老保险收入再分配效应

本文在考虑职工基本养老保险典型不同缴费基数参保者寿命存在异质性的情况下,通过内部收益率的计算考察典型不同缴费基数参保者之间的养老金收入再分配效应。首先根据省级宏观截面数据估计了职工基本养老保险典型不同缴费基数参保者退休时的平均余命,再据此分别计算和比较不同参保群体的内部收益率。 研究发现职工基本养老保险制度总体上呈现微弱的正向收入再分配效应。虽然低缴费基数参保者内部收益率略高于中、高缴费基数参保职工,但其内部收益率因相对较短的寿命而大大降低。这也提醒政策制定者在研究制定延迟退休、社会养老保险全国统筹等政策时需要充分考虑参保职工内部不同群体间的平均预期寿命差别,对低收入参保者予以特别关注。     

Modeling of Discrete HNBUE Class with Hypothesis Testing Application

A new model is proposed to test whether an equipment whose life is measured in discrete time units fails due to uncontrollable chance factors alone against the alternatives that it degrades over time in the sense of discrete HNBUE (harmonic new better than used in expectation) aging. The test is shown to be consistent and the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic has been obtained. The critical points and the power of the test against various alternatives from discrete HNBUE class have been studied by means of simulation. Finally, the test is applied to a discrete reliability data to examine the performance.     

Inferences on the Means of Two Log-Normal Distributions: A Computational Approach Test

In this article, we propose a novel approach for testing the equality of two log-normal populations using a computational approach test (CAT) that does not require explicit knowledge of the sampling distribution of the test statistic. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed approach can perform hypothesis testing with satisfying actual size even at small sample sizes. Overall, it is superior to other existing methods. Also, a CAT is proposed for testing about reliability of two log-normal populations when the means are the same. Simulations show that the actual size of this new approach is close to nominal level and better than the score test. At the end, the proposed methods are illustrated using two examples.     

Hypothesis Testing in a Rayleigh Diffusion Model

Applying the large and moderate deviations for the log-likelihood ratio of the Rayleigh diffusion model, we give the negative regions in testing Rayleigh diffusion model and obtain the decay rates of the error probabilities.     

Bayesian goodness-of-fit test for censored data

We propose a Bayesian computation and inference method for the Pearson-type chi-squared goodness-of-fit test with right-censored survival data. Our test statistic is derived from the classical Pearson chi-squared test using the differences between the observed and expected counts in the partitioned bins. In the Bayesian paradigm, we generate posterior samples of the model parameter using the Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure. By replacing the maximum likelihood estimator in the quadratic form with a random observation from the posterior distribution of the model parameter, we can easily construct a chi-squared test statistic. The degrees of freedom of the test equal the number of bins and thus is independent of the dimensionality of the underlying parameter vector. The test statistic recovers the conventional Pearson-type chi-squared structure. Moreover, the proposed algorithm circumvents the burden of evaluating the Fisher information matrix, its inverse and the rank of the variance–covariance matrix. We examine the proposed model diagnostic method using simulation studies and illustrate it with a real data set from a prostate cancer study.     

On square ordinal contingency tables: a comparison of social class and income mobility for the same individuals

Summary.  Square contingency tables with matching ordinal rows and columns arise in particular as empirical transition matrices and the paper considers these in the context of social class and income mobility tables. Such tables relate the socio-economic position of parents to the socio-economic position of their child in adulthood. The level of association between parental and child socio-economic position is taken as a measure of mobility. Several approaches to analysis are described and illustrated by UK data in which interest focuses on comparisons of social class and income mobility tables that are derived from the same individuals. Account is taken of the use of the same individuals in the two tables. Additionally comparisons over time are considered.     

中国农户收入增长与就业决策行为：一个动态解释—基于湖北农户跟踪调查的实证研究

 本文围绕着农户家庭收入增长和劳动就业决策行为的动态关系而展开,笔者在设定一个基本理论框架的基础上提出了两个基本假说,进而引出了经验分析。本项研究利用2001—2006年湖北15个村庄的900户农户跟踪调查的面板数据,研究发现：（1）农户家庭是一个理性的微观经济组织。（2）处于外生政策变动中的农户经济组织是一个完整的经济系统,它在外部经济条件的冲击下表现出比较稳定的“状态依赖”特征。当前中国农村形成了“农村就业两端刚性”的趋势。（3）从短期来看,外部支农政策冲击并没有从本质上改变农户家庭的就业决策行为。（4）中国农村家庭就业行为决策是本质上的理性和表现上的非理性的统一。