Appraising income inequality databases in Latin America

This paper provides an evaluation of the main income distribution databases in Latin America: the CEPALSTAT and the SEDLAC databases. Alhough they rely on the same household surveys conducted by national statistical offices in the region, the indicators reported in the two databases differ substantially in a number of cases. Those differences come from distinct adjustments made to the original data, in particular an adjustment to National Accounts aggregate income data in the CEPALSTAT database. Based on this comparison, the paper then provides a general discussion of the adjustment of household survey data to National Accounts as well as other issues which may be responsible for biases in the way inequality is estimated and reported.