The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures

Arbeitspapier

The paper characterizes the class of weakly decomposable (aggregable) inequality measures which satisfy a new (weak) decomposition (and agregation) property. These measures can be decomposed into the sum of the usual within-group and a between-group term which is based on the inequality between all pairs of individuals belonging to the groups involved. The measures therfore depend on the inequality index for two-person distributions and are proportional to the total sum of the inequality values between all pairs of individuals. Extending Gini's mean difference, the Gini coefficient, and the variance of logarithms we characterize three families of measures. By choosing other basic measures furhter (families of) weakly decomposable measures can be defined.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere ; No. V-325-10

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions ; Index Numbers and Aggregation; Leading indicators
• Subject: Inequality measures ; decomposition ; aggregation ; Gini's mean difference ; Gini coefficient ; variance of logarithms

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Ebert, Udo
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics
• (where): Oldenburg
• (when): 2010

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/105013
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET