A Family of Generalized Beta Distributions for Income

Abstract

The mathematical properties of a family of generalized beta distribution, including beta-normal, skewed-t, log-F, beta-exponential, beta-Weibull distributions have recently been studied in several publications. This paper applies these distributions to the modeling of the size distribution of income and computes the maximum likelihood estimation estimates of parameters. Their performances are compared to the widely used generalized beta distributions of the first and second types in terms of measures of goodness of fit.