The Standardized World Income Inequality Database, Versions 8-9

Cross-national research on the causes and consequences of income inequality has been hindered by the limitations of the existing inequality datasets: greater coverage across countries and over time has been available from these sources only at the cost of significantly reduced comparability across observations. The goal of the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) is to meet the needs of those engaged in broadly cross-national research by maximizing the comparability of income inequality data while maintaining the widest possible coverage across countries and over time. The SWIID’s income inequality estimates are based on thousands of reported Gini indices from hundreds of published sources, including the OECD Income Distribution Database, the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean generated by CEDLAS and the World Bank, Eurostat, the World Bank’s PovcalNet, the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, national statistical offices around the world, and academic studies while minimizing reliance on problematic assumptions by using as much information as possible from proximate years within the same country. The data collected and harmonized by the Luxembourg Income Study is employed as the standard. The SWIID currently incorporates comparable Gini indices of disposable and market income inequality for 199 countries for as many years as possible from 1960 to the present; it also includes information on absolute and relative redistribution.

现有收入不平等数据集的局限性，阻碍了针对收入不平等成因与影响的跨国研究：此类数据源若要实现更广泛的跨国及跨时间覆盖范围，则必须以显著降低观测间可比性为代价。标准化世界收入不平等数据库（Standardized World Income Inequality Database, SWIID）的研发目标，是通过最大化收入不平等数据的可比性，同时尽可能维持跨国及跨时间的覆盖范围，来满足广大从事跨国研究的学者的需求。该数据库的收入不平等估算值，基于数百项已发表来源中的数千项报告的基尼系数（Gini indices），这些来源包括经合组织（OECD）收入分配数据库、由CEDLAS与世界银行联合编制的拉美和加勒比社会经济数据库、欧盟统计局（Eurostat）、世界银行PovcalNet平台、联合国拉丁美洲和加勒比经济委员会、全球各国国家统计局以及各类学术研究成果；同时，该数据库尽可能多地使用同一国家邻近年份的信息，以最大限度减少对存在缺陷的假设的依赖。卢森堡收入研究（Luxembourg Income Study）所收集并协调统一的数据，被用作该数据库的基准标准。截至当前，标准化世界收入不平等数据库已纳入199个国家自1960年至今尽可能多年份的可支配收入与市场收入不平等可比基尼系数，同时还包含绝对再分配与相对再分配的相关信息。