Applications of the Gini Index Beyond Economics and Statistics

Roberta La Haye () and Petr Zizler ()
Additional contact information
Roberta La Haye: Mount Royal University
Petr Zizler: Mount Royal University

Chapter 65 in Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences, 2021, pp 1661-1689 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter discusses the Gini index and Gini mean difference, two closely related statistics that have vastly different applications. These applications include traditional ones such as income and wealth as well as nontraditional ones arising in such diverse fields such as digital imaging, genetics, and astronomy. The Gini index and Gini mean difference are defined in terms of the Lorenz curve. The Lorenz curve allows the development of a geometric intuition regarding the quantities involved. The curve provides an interesting perspective on how the Gini index and the Gini mean difference change under various scenarios involving household income inequality in a country. The Lorenz curve and Gini’s two measures are further explored in the context of measuring contrast in grayscale images as well. The coefficient of variation and standard deviation are also discussed for the sake of comparison, and several other measures of spread and inequality arising in the Lorenz curve are noted.

Keywords: Gini index; Gini mean difference; standard deviation; coefficient of correlation; Robin Hood index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-57072-3_103

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319570723

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57072-3_103

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().