IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/phsmap/v454y2016icp66-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Visualizing inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Eliazar, Iddo

Abstract

The study of socioeconomic inequality is of substantial importance, scientific and general alike. The graphic visualization of inequality is commonly conveyed by Lorenz curves. While Lorenz curves are a highly effective statistical tool for quantifying the distribution of wealth in human societies, they are less effective a tool for the visual depiction of socioeconomic inequality. This paper introduces an alternative to Lorenz curves—the hill curves. On the one hand, the hill curves are a potent scientific tool: they provide detailed scans of the rich–poor gaps in human societies under consideration, and are capable of accommodating infinitely many degrees of freedom. On the other hand, the hill curves are a powerful infographic tool: they visualize inequality in a most vivid and tangible way, with no quantitative skills that are required in order to grasp the visualization. The application of hill curves extends far beyond socioeconomic inequality. Indeed, the hill curves are highly effective ‘hyperspectral’ measures of statistical variability that are applicable in the context of size distributions at large. This paper establishes the notion of hill curves, analyzes them, and describes their application in the context of general size distributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Eliazar, Iddo, 2016. "Visualizing inequality," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 454(C), pages 66-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:454:y:2016:i:c:p:66-80
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.02.062
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437116002405
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.physa.2016.02.062?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Bourguignon, 2015. "The Globalization of Inequality," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10433.
    2. Cowell, Frank, 2011. "Measuring Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 3, number 9780199594047.
    3. Atkinson, Anthony B., 2015. "Inequality: what can be done?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101810, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. repec:cup:cbooks:9781107013445 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eliazar, Iddo, 2017. "Investigating equality: The Rényi spectrum," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 481(C), pages 90-118.
    2. Rory Horner & David Hulme, 2019. "From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 347-378, March.
    3. Guillermo Cruces & Gary S. Fields & David Jaume & Mariana Viollaz, 2015. "The growth-employment-poverty nexus in Latin America in the 2000s: Cross-country analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-110, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Valentina VASILE & Daniel ŞTEFAN & Călin-Adrian COMES & Elena BUNDUCHI & Anamari-Beatrice ŞTEFAN, 2020. "FDI or Remittances for Sustainable External Financial Inflows. Theoretical Delimitations and Practical Evidence using Granger Causality," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 131-153, December.
    5. Lustig Nora, 2016. "Inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in Middle Income Countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru and South Africa," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 17-60, June.
    6. Nora Lustig, 2019. "Measuring the distributional impact of taxation and public spending: The practice of fiscal incidence analysis," Working Papers 509, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Peter Temin, 2015. "The American Dual Economy: Race, Globalization, and the Politics of Exclusion," Working Papers Series 26, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    8. Tania Burchardt & Rod Hick, 2017. "Inequality and the Capability Approach," CASE Papers /201, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    9. Francisco G. Ferreira & Nora Lustig & Daniel Teles, 2015. "Appraising cross-national income inequality databases: An introduction," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(4), pages 497-526, December.
    10. Gervasio SEMEDO & Bertrand LAPORTE & Asbath ALASSANI, 2022. "How does tax structure affect income inequality? Empirical evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2960, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    11. Nora Lustig, 2018. "Measuring the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth: State of Play and Measurement Challenges," Working Papers 1801, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    12. Palma, J. G., 2020. "Why the Rich Stay Rich. On dysfunctional institutions’ “ability to persist” (no matter what)," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 20124, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Anand, Sudhir & Segal, Paul, 2017. "Who are the global top 1%?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101816, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Amer Ahmed & Maurizio Bussolo & Marcio Cruz & Delfin S. Go & Israel Osorio-Rodarte, 2020. "Global Inequality in a more educated world," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 18(4), pages 585-616, December.
    15. Leopoldo TORNAROLLI & Matías CIASCHI & Luciana GALEANO, 2018. "Income Distribution in Latin America. The Evolution in the Last 20 Years: A Global Approach," Working Paper 0b1f0e35-82be-4853-8fac-2, Agence française de développement.
    16. Yonatan Berman, 2022. "The Long-Run Evolution of Absolute Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 61-83, July.
    17. Erin Lockwood, 2021. "The international political economy of global inequality," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 421-445, March.
    18. Nguyen, Canh Phuc & Nasir, Muhammad Ali, 2021. "An inquiry into the nexus between energy poverty and income inequality in the light of global evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Burchardt, Tania & Hick, Rod, 2017. "Inequality and the capability approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103504, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Brian A'Hearn & Nicola Amendola & Giovanni Vecchi, 2016. "On Historical Household Budgets," Rivista di storia economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 137-176.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:454:y:2016:i:c:p:66-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/physica-a-statistical-mechpplications/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.