Pen's Parade or The Income Parade is a concept described in a 1971 book published by Dutch economist
Jan Pen
Jan Pen (15 February 1921 in Lemmer – 14 February 2010 in Haren, Groningen, Haren) was a Dutch economist, professor and columnist. He is author of several books on economics.
Life and work
Pen studied at the University of Amsterdam, where in 19 ...
describing
income distribution. The parade is defined as a succession of every person in the economy, with their height proportional to their income, and ordered from lowest to greatest. People with average income would be of average height, and so the spectator. The Pen's description of what the spectator would see is a parade of dwarves, and then some unbelievable giants at the very end.
The original context of the parade is the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, and the duration is one hour. The parade is used by economists as a graphical representation of
income inequality because it is a form of
quantile function
In probability and statistics, the quantile function, associated with a probability distribution of a random variable, specifies the value of the random variable such that the probability of the variable being less than or equal to that value equ ...
and it is considered useful when comparing two different areas or periods.
Summary of events
* At the beginning of the parade, the marchers cannot be seen at all because they represent businesses with losses.
* Very soon, upright marchers with positive income begin to pass by, but they are very tiny.
* Ten minutes in, the full-time labor force has arrived and it lasts several minutes.
* By about halfway through the parade, the observers might expect to be looking people in the eye—people of average height ought to be in the middle, but the marchers are still quite small
* About forty-five minutes—the parade the marchers are as tall as the observers.
* In the final six minutes, however, when people with earnings in the top 10 percent begin to arrive, with heights increasing fast. Doctors, lawyers, and senior civil servants are about 20 feet tall, and later, successful corporate executives, bankers, stockbrokers—peering down from fifty feet, 100 feet, 500 feet.
* In the last few seconds there's a glimpse of pop stars, movie stars and the most successful entrepreneurs, and the observer can see only up to their knees.
* At the very end of the parade, in the original book, is
John Paul Getty. The sole of his shoe is hundreds of feet thick.
See also
*
Gini coefficient
*
Atkinson index The Atkinson index (also known as the Atkinson measure or Atkinson inequality measure) is a measure of income inequality developed by British economist Anthony Barnes Atkinson. The measure is useful in determining which end of the distribution cont ...
References
External links
The open university's description of the income parade.
Demographic economics
Economic inequality
Income distribution
Welfare economics
{{economics-stub