 A foray into the demarcation of the Gini coefficientOded Stark and Grzegorz Kosiorowski Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 254, issue C Abstract: We specify the domain in the income distribution that includes the people to whom income transfers will not increase inequality in that income distribution. Inspired by Sen’s (1973, 1997) characterization of the Gini coefficient as a ratio between a measure of aggregate income-based “depression” (stress) and aggregate income, we inquire as to whether in the wake of an increase of an income or of incomes in a given income distribution, the Gini coefficient does not increase. To this end, we identify the corresponding “safe” domain and show that the pivotal value that demarcates this domain can be elicited from a simple linear function of the Gini coefficient itself. Our rule of demarcation provides for policy interventions that seek to increase a particular income or particular incomes while not exacerbating inequality in the income distribution as measured by the Gini coefficient. Keywords: Aggregate income; Aggregate income-based stress; Gini coefficient; Rank-preserving increase of an income or incomes; Sufficient condition for the Gini coefficient not to increase; Pivotal value (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:254:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525002423 DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112405 Access Statistics for this article Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier |
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