On the Assessment and Use of Cross-National Income Inequality Datasets

Researchers should ensure the data they employ are fit for their purpose, and they should maximize the quality of the data they choose. In this paper, I review how this advice applies to broadly cross-national research on income inequality. I demonstrate that the guid-ance offered in Jenkins (2015) to those pursuing cross-national re-search runs completely counter to the recommendations found in Atkin-son and Brandolini (2001, 2009), the source of the aforementioned advice and the works upon which Jenkins (2015) claims its own is based. I then show how the Standardized World Income Inequal-ity Database (SWIID) incorporates Atkinson and Brandolini’s recom-mendations to provide the most comparable data available for those engaged in broadly cross-national research on income inequality. The assessment of the Standardized World Income Inequality Database (SWIID) offered in this issue (Jenkins 2015) suffers from bad timing. It wa