Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation

Jean-Yves Duclos (), Debraj Ray and Joan Esteban ()

No 335, LIS Working papers from LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we develop the measurement theory of polarization for the case in which asset distributions can be described using density functions. Second, we provide sample estimators of population polarization indices that can be used to compare polarization across time or entities. Distribution-free statistical inference results are also derived in order to ensure that the orderings of polarization across entities are not simply due to sampling noise. An illustration of the use of these tools using data from 21 countries shows that polarization and inequality orderings can often differ in practice.

Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2002-11
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Econometrica 72, no. 6 (2004): 1737-1772

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.lisdatacenter.org/wps/liswps/335.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation (2015)
Journal Article: Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation (2004)
Working Paper: Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation (2003)
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:lis:liswps:335

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LIS Working papers from LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Piotr Paradowski ().