The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures

Udo Ebert

No V-325-10, Working Papers from University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: The paper characterizes the class of weakly decomposable (aggregable) inequality measures which satisfy a new (weak) decomposition (and agregation) property. These measures can be decomposed into the sum of the usual within-group and a between-group term which is based on the inequality between all pairs of individuals belonging to the groups involved. The measures therfore depend on the inequality index for two-person distributions and are proportional to the total sum of the inequality values between all pairs of individuals. Extending Gini's mean difference, the Gini coefficient, and the variance of logarithms we characterize three families of measures. By choosing other basic measures furhter (families of) weakly decomposable measures can be defined.

Keywords: Inequality measures; decomposition; aggregation; Gini's mean difference; Gini coefficient; variance of logarithms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 D31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2010-05, Revised 2010-05
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Published in Oldenburg Working Papers V-325-10

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http://www.vwl.uni-oldenburg.de/download/V-325-10.pdf First version, 2010 (application/pdf)

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Journal Article: The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:old:dpaper:325

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