The Gini coefficient and negative income: A probabilistic approach

Karim Kilani
Additional contact information
Karim Kilani: LIRSA - Laboratoire interdisciplinaire de recherche en sciences de l'action - Cnam - Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers [Cnam]

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: This paper discusses the Gini index when a mass of individuals in the population sharing the wealth suffers a loss. This question has been addressed in the statistical framework while here it is treated from a probabilistic point of view, which allows us to be as exhaustive as possible. The assumptions are the most general ones on probability distributions. We determine a condition on the Lorenz function that generates a Gini index that exceeds unity. We construct an adjusted Gini index, i.e. one that remains within limits between zero and one, according to a method advocated in the statistical framework. After having recovered the recommended index in the statistical case, we apply the method to continuous distributions, namely the uniform distribution and the generalized Pareto distribution, thus showing the operability of the method.

Keywords: Adjusted Gini index; Lorenz function; Negative income; Quantile function JEL classification. C43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12-22
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03911502v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-03911502v1/document (application/pdf)

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:hal:wpaper:hal-03911502

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().