Abstract
The distribution of labor incomes is a problem with two aspects, each of which has received ample attention in the literature. The first aspect relates to the shape of the frequency distribution of individuals according to their (labor) incomes. Analytical contributions include the so-called stochastic theories of income distribution, such as Gibrat’s law of proportionate effect, Champernowne’s and Rutherford’s Markov-chain models, and Pigou’s puzzle. The question is, If abilities are normally distributed, why should the distribution of incomes deviate from this shape? This deviation is the basic fact that these theories explain: income distributions, whatever the time and place of observation, are positively skewed.
Het is mogelijk dat het onmogelijk is om iets nieuwer en juister te zeggen, maar over al het geschrevene daalt het stof der tijden neer, en ik peins daarom dat het goed is als er om de 10 jaar een andere een kruis trekt over al die oude dingen, en de wereld-van-vandaag opnieuw uitspreekt met andere woorden.1
—Louis Paul Boon (1972)
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© 1981 Martinus Nijhoff Publishing
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Hartog, J. (1981). Introduction. In: Personal Income Distribution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8760-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8760-9_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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