Reference distributions and inequality measurement

Frank Cowell (), Emmanuel Flachaire and Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay ()

The Journal of Economic Inequality, 2013, vol. 11, issue 4, 437 pages

Abstract: We investigate a general problem of comparing pairs of distributions which includes approaches to inequality measurement, the evaluation of “unfair” income inequality, evaluation of inequality relative to norm incomes, and goodness of fit. We show how to represent the generic problem simply using (1) a class of divergence measures derived from a parsimonious set of axioms and (2) alternative types of “reference distributions.” The problems of appropriate statistical implementation are discussed and empirical illustrations of the technique are provided using a variety of reference distributions. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Keywords: Divergence measures; Generalised entropy measures; Income distribution; Inequality measurement; D63; C10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10888-012-9238-z

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