Measuring Regional Inequality by Internet Car Price Advertisements: Evidence for Germany

20 Pages Posted: 4 Aug 2010

See all articles by Konstantin A. Kholodilin

Konstantin A. Kholodilin

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin)

Boriss Siliverstovs

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) - Department of International Economics

Date Written: July 2010

Abstract

We suggest to use Internet car sale price advertisements for measuring economic inequality between and within German regions. Our estimates of regional income levels and Gini indices based on advertisements are highly, positively correlated with the official figures. This implies that the observed car prices can serve as a reasonably good proxy for income levels. In contrast to the traditional measures, our data can be fast and inexpensively retrieved from the web, and more importantly allow to estimate Gini indices at the NUTS2 level-something that never has been done before. Our approach to measuring regional inequality is a useful alternative source of information that could complement officially available measures.

Keywords: Car price advertisements, economic inequality, German NUTS1 and NUTS regions, Gini index, Internet

JEL Classification: C21, O47, R11

Suggested Citation

Kholodilin, Konstantin A. and Siliverstovs, Boriss, Measuring Regional Inequality by Internet Car Price Advertisements: Evidence for Germany (July 2010). DIW Berlin Discussion Paper No. 1036, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1652708 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1652708

Konstantin A. Kholodilin (Contact Author)

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) ( email )

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

Boriss Siliverstovs

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) - Department of International Economics ( email )

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.diw.de/programme/jsp/MA.jsp?language=en&uid=bsiliverstovs

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