Improving inequality measurement: A literature review on DINA

Working Paper 2025-682

Abstract

Great efforts have been recently made to improve the availability of appropriate data to study income inequality. With this aim, the Distributional National Accounts (DINA) have been developed by integrating information from different sources, trying to correct the under-representation of high incomes and the comparability and consistency of statistical series with the figures provided by national accounting.This article reviews the existing literature on DINA based on the methodology by the World Inequality Lab (WIL). Most works have paid attention to building the series that make up the World Inequality Database, offering a description of the current and historical income distribution at the national level. Using these data, some analysis has also been done on the effectiveness of different redistributive policy measures in reducing observed inequality. However, few studies have developed causal models based on DINA. The present review allows to highlight that there is a promising space open for research not only in the economic field (by reviewing and updating classic topics such as the causes and effects of income inequality, or its controversial relationship with economic growth), but in other areas of knowledge, such as environmental accounting, sociology or political science.

Authors: Jose Alberto Carton Villanueva, Ana Suarez Alvarez, Maria Rosalia Vicente.