van der Weide, RoyLakner, ChristophIanchovichina, Elena2016-07-072016-07-072016-06https://hdl.handle.net/10986/24645Household income surveys often fail to capture top incomes which leads to an underestimation of income inequality. A popular solution is to combine the household survey with data from income tax records, which has been found to result in significant upward corrections of inequality estimates. Unfortunately, tax records are unavailable in many countries, including most of the developing world. In the absence of data from tax records, this study explores the feasibility of using data on house prices to estimate the top tail of the income distribution. In an application to Egypt, where estimates of inequality based on household surveys alone are low by international standards, the study finds strong evidence that inequality is indeed being underestimated by a considerable margin. The Gini index for urban Egypt is found to increase from 36 to 47 after correcting for the missing top tail.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOHOUSEHOLD INCOMESINDICATOR FUNCTIONHOUSEHOLD SURVEYHOUSEHOLD SIZEINCOME SHAREITSINCOMEINTERESTPOVERTY RATESSALARYEMERGING ECONOMIESEXCHANGEECONOMIC REVIEWLABOR FORCEDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDISTRIBUTION OF INCOMEPOSITIVE VALUEMORTGAGEWORLD DEVELOPMENT INDICATORSLINEAR MODELPOLICY DISCUSSIONSSALARIESHOUSEHOLD SURVEY DATASTANDARD PRACTICEPRICETAXINCOME TAXCREDIT CARDSAVINGDEVELOPED COUNTRIESECONOMIC ANALYSISSURVEY SAMPLEPOPULATION CENSUSBETWEEN-GROUP INEQUALITYSAVINGSMORTGAGESRURAL HOUSEHOLDSLABOR FORCE SURVEYSMEDIAN INCOMEWAGEHOUSEHOLD HEADINEQUALITY MEASURESREPRESENTATIVE SAMPLEINCOME INEQUALITYAVERAGE INCOMEGROUP MEANSGINI INDEXCROSS-COUNTRY REGRESSIONINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONHOUSEHOLD INCOMEHIGH INCOMEHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSCONSUMPTION EXPENDITUREINDICATORSINCOME LEVELSMIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIESPRODUCTINEQUALITY COMPONENTREAL ESTATEAVERAGE RATEINCOME DATAEMPIRICAL APPLICATIONEQUITYCONSUMPTIONINEQUALITY ESTIMATESCUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTIONPOPULATION SHAREMORTGAGE MARKETSHIGH INCOMESDEPENDENT VARIABLEDISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONHOUSEHOLD DATAINCOME DISTRIBUTIONSLINEAR RELATIONSHIPCONSUMPTION SURVEYDEVELOPING WORLDMEAN INCOMEFUNCTIONAL FORMINCOME DISTRIBUTIONTOTAL POPULATIONINCOME COUNTRIESINCOMESINEQUALITY COUNTRIESREPRESENTATIVE “SAMPLESHARESDOWNWARD BIASEARNINGRENTAL VALUESURVEYSINEQUALITY MEASUREINCREASING FUNCTIONCUMULATIVE DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONECONOMIC INEQUALITYECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTGROUP INEQUALITYINCOME STATISTICSSHAREDEVELOPING ECONOMYINCOME SHARESSAMPLINGSURVEY DATAEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEMEASURES OF POVERTYHOUSEHOLD EXPENDITURESPOLICY RESEARCHEXCHANGE RATEMEASURING INEQUALITYARBITRAGEPOPULATION SUB-GROUPHOUSEHOLD EXPENDITUREPRICESINCOME LEVELINEQUALITYWorking PaperWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-7727