This book presents a systematic overview of cutting-edge research in the
field of parametric modeling of personal income and wealth distribution,
which allows one to represent how income/wealth is distributed within a
given population. The estimated parameters may be used to gain insights
into the causes of the evolution of income/wealth distribution over
time, or to interpret the differences between distributions across
countries. Moreover, once a given parametric model has been fitted to a
data set, one can straightforwardly compute inequality and poverty
measures. Finally, estimated parameters may be used in empirical
modeling of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on the evolution of
personal income/wealth distribution. In reviewing the state of the art
in the field, the authors provide a thorough discussion of parametric
models belonging to the "κ-generalized" family, a new and fruitful set
of statistical models for the size distribution of income and wealth
that they have developed over several years of collaborative and
multidisciplinary research. This book will be of interest to all who
share the belief that problems of income and wealth distribution merit
detailed conceptual and methodological attention.