Foreword

There is a strong need for high quality information on how different household groups in society are faring. Shocks such as the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have stressed the importance of having better information on distributions across social groups, as key input to design policies and to foster inclusive growth. Distributional results on income, consumption and saving aligned to important macroeconomic aggregates such as GDP, household disposable income and household saving are crucial in this regard, providing insight in key dimensions of material well-being across household groups.

In 2011, the OECD and Eurostat launched an Expert Group on Disparities in a National Accounts framework (EG DNA) to develop methodology for the compilation of household distributional results on income, consumption and saving in line with national accounts totals. This Handbook is the result of the work by this expert group and includes information from various questionnaires, presentations and discussions conducted since the launch of the project. It aims to assist compilers in deriving high-quality distributional results and to provide users with more insights into how the results have been derived.

The handbook was drafted by Jorrit Zwijnenburg (OECD), with Asa Johanssen providing valuable advice and editorial support. The Handbook benefited a lot from the inputs and feedback from the various EG DNA members over the years, including Tigran Baghdasaryan (Armenia), Sharon Bailey, Olivier Brunet, Nathan Chia, Derick Cullen, Jacqueline Dumpleton, Ross Harvey, Scott Jensen, Amanda Seneviratne and Michael Smedes (Australia), Anja Breitwieser, Tanja Jurasszovich and Karl Schwarz (Austria), Romain Grailet, Rutger Kemels and Laurent van Belle (Belgium), Ricardo Moraes, Katia Namir and Rebeca Palis (Brazil), Brenda Bugge, Chantal Hicks, Jackie Maisonneuve, Amanda Sinclair and Catherine van Rompaey (Canada), Gerzo Gallardo, Claudia Henríquez and Juan Radrigan (Chile), Vladimir Kermiet, Zuzana Ptackova and Jiri Vopravil (Czechia), Nina Kristiansen, Kathrine Lindeskov Johansen and Jarl Quitzau, (Denmark), Katri Soinne and Veli-Matti Törmälehto (Finland), Aliocha Accardo, Mathias André, Sylvain Billot, Maël Buron, Sébastien Durier, Fabrice Lenglart and Lucile Richet-Mastain (France), Albert Braakmann, Regina Langemann and Florian Schwahn (Germany), Brian Cahill, Justin Flannery and John Sheridan (Ireland), Yafit Alfandari, Hadassa Ben Or, Hila Dizahav, Yoel Finkel, Tali Shalem and Oz Shimony (Israel), Diego Caprara, Stefania Cuicchio, Gabriella Donatiello, Andrea Neri and Marina Sorrentino (Italy), Susumu Kuwahara, Saeko Maeda, Tetsuro Sakamaki, Ryoichi Watanabe and Tomohiro Yamazaki (Japan), Jung Yoon Choi, Woon Sun Eo, Yong Su Jeon, Cheoljae Kim, Young Tai Kim, Tae Ok Lim, Soosung Moon, Young Ji Moon, Jinho Park, and Ji Won Park, (Korea), Francisco Guillen, Fernando Pineda and Gabriela Velázquez Vera (Mexico), Arjan Bruil, Jasper Dingerink, Mélanie Koymans, Safan van der Gaauw and Wim van Nunspeet (Netherlands), Lindsay Beck, Jeff Cope, Fay Peng and Victoria Ward (New Zealand), Mikolaj Haponuik (Poland), Teresa Hilário, Cristina Ramos, Carina Rodrigues and Ana Simao (Portugal), Michal Cepela, Ludmila Ivancikova and Jozef Rosik (Slovakia), Romana Korenic, Mojca Skrlec and Jana Vajda (Slovenia), Alfredo Cristobal, Javier Orche Galindo and Sara Ruiz Gutierrez (Spain), Andreas Lennmalm, Tare Noori, Lana Omanovic and Axel Purwin (Sweden), Stephan Häni, Ueli Schiess and Lukas Schweizer (Switzerland), Angela Barry, David Matthewson, Ellys Monahan, Robert Smith, Sofiya Stoyanova, Sean White and John Wildman (United Kingdom), Mike Batty, Dennis Fixler, Kevin Furlong, Thesia Garner, Marina Gindelsky, David Johnson, Clinton McCully and John Sabelhaus (United States), Jon Jellema (Commitment to Equity), Juha Honkkila, Ilja Kristian Kavonius, Guillaume Osier, Pierre Sola and Sofie Waltl (European Central Bank), Martha Tovar (International Monetary Fund), Paul Alkemade, Teresa Munzi, Jorg Neugschwender and Josep Espasa Reig (Luxembourg Income Study), Benson Sim (United Nations), Austin Clemens (Washington Centre for Equitable Growth), Jose Pablo Valdes Martinez (World Bank), and Matthew Fisher-Post and Marc Morgan (World Inequality Lab).

Furthermore, several current and former OECD colleagues (including trainees and secondees) provided important contributions to the work over the past years, including Carlotta Balestra, Joong Kwon Bang, Sarah Barahona, Sophie Bournot, Philip Chan, Yangsin Choi, Ole Cordes, Matthew De Queljoe, Pao Engelbrecht, Maryse Fesseau, Federico Giovannelli, David Grahn, Joseph Grilli, Emmanuelle Guidetti, Horacio Levy, Marco Mira d’Ercole, John Mitchell, Elena Tosetto, Peter van de Ven and Florence Wolff.

Special thanks go out to current and former colleagues from Eurostat for the excellent collaboration over the years and for all their contributions to the work and the Handbook, in particular Alessandra Coli, Eleni Giannopoulou, Filippo Gregorini, Sigita Grundiza, Radoslav Istatkov, Maria Liviana Mattonetti, Friderike Oehler, Francesca Tartamella, Ani Todorova, John Verrinder and Hakam Jayyousi (Eurostat).

Finally, thanks go out to Chloe Acas for formatting the final report.