1.4. Organizational Structure

The remainder of this study is organized as follows. Chapter 2 reviews the existing literature and explains how it relates to the subject of this thesis. Chapter 3 presents the raw data as they appear in the Statistics of Income tables, and describes the methodology used to derive the fractile tables and all other inequality measures. Cross-sectional and trend-over-time analyses are presented in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 starts with an overview of the βconvergence, continues with the estimation of growth and inequality equations, and ends with an analysis on income dispersion. Finally, Chapter 6 acknowledges the need for studying more than the top 10 percent of the income distribution, and endeavors an estimation of lower fractiles (down to the lower decile) based on a few assumptions on the functional form of the Lorenz curve. The Gini coefficients, and two other inequality measures (‘top-to-bottom’ ratio and an intermediary indicator) are also estimated and briefly commented. Chapter 7 concludes the study with a summary and suggestions for future research.