IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/mareco/v8y2014i3p237-256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Note on the Estimation of the Gini Index

Author

Listed:
  • George Djolov

    (The author is at the University of Stellenbosch and Socio-Economic Integration Unit, Statistics South Africa, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa, email: georged@statssa.gov.za)

Abstract

This article provides a statistical decision-making framework for the Gini index through the introduction of practically usable confidence intervals for this index. The resultant intervals enable hypothesis testing with the Gini index as well as providing a mechanism for studying the reliability of its estimates. The article presents these confidence intervals and demonstrates their prospective uses with an illustrative example to officially published estimates for the index from 24 countries. JEL Classification: C02, C13

Suggested Citation

  • George Djolov, 2014. "A Note on the Estimation of the Gini Index," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 8(3), pages 237-256, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:8:y:2014:i:3:p:237-256
    DOI: 10.1177/0973801014531134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0973801014531134
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0973801014531134?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter Piesch, 2005. "A look at the structure of some extended Ginis," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(2), pages 263-296.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    3. Tomson Ogwang, 2000. "A Convenient Method of Computing the Gini Index and its Standard Error," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 62(1), pages 123-129, February.
    4. Elias Karagiannis & Milorad Kovacevic', 2000. "A Method to Calculate the Jackknife Variance Estimator For the Gini Coefficient," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 62(1), pages 119-122, February.
    5. repec:bla:obuest:v:62:y:2000:i:1:p:119-22 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Reh, Wolfgang & Scheffler, Bernard, 1996. "Significance tests and confidence intervals for coefficients of variation," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 449-452, August.
    7. Florence George & B. M. Golam Kibria, 2012. "Confidence intervals for estimating the population signal-to-noise ratio: a simulation study," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 1225-1240, November.
    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. Karoly, Lynn & Schröder, Carsten, 2015. "Fast methods for jackknifing inequality indices," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 37(1), pages 125-138.
    2. Kuan Xu, 2007. "U-Statistics and Their Asymptotic Results for Some Inequality and Poverty Measures," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 567-577.
    3. Mazzi Gian Luigi & Mitchell James & Carausu Florabela, 2021. "Measuring and Communicating the Uncertainty in Official Economic Statistics," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 37(2), pages 289-316, June.
    4. David E. A. Giles, 2004. "Calculating a Standard Error for the Gini Coefficient: Some Further Results," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 66(3), pages 425-433, July.
    5. Xiaofeng Lv & Gupeng Zhang & Xinkuo Xu & Qinghai Li, 2017. "Bootstrap-calibrated empirical likelihood confidence intervals for the difference between two Gini indexes," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(2), pages 195-216, June.
    6. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "A Review of Decomposition of Income Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1221, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Xiaofeng Lv & Gupeng Zhang & Xinkuo Xu & Qinghai Li, 2017. "Bootstrap-calibrated empirical likelihood confidence intervals for the difference between two Gini indexes," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 15(2), pages 195-216, June.
    8. Wang, Dongliang & Zhao, Yichuan & Gilmore, Dirk W., 2016. "Jackknife empirical likelihood confidence interval for the Gini index," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 289-295.
    9. Heshmati, Almas, 2004. "Data Issues and Databases Used in Analysis of Growth, Poverty and Economic Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 1263, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Berger Yves G. & Balay İklim Gedik, 2020. "Confidence Intervals of Gini Coefficient Under Unequal Probability Sampling," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 36(2), pages 237-249, June.
    11. Encarnación Álvarez-Verdejo & Pablo J. Moya-Fernández & Juan F. Muñoz-Rosas, 2021. "Single Imputation Methods and Confidence Intervals for the Gini Index," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(24), pages 1-20, December.
    12. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    13. Iacovone, Leonardo & Ferro, Esteban & Pereira-López, Mariana & Zavacka, Veronika, 2019. "Banking crises and exports: Lessons from the past," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 192-204.
    14. Marco Colagrossi & Claudio Deiana & Andrea Geraci & Ludovica Giua, 2022. "Hang up on stereotypes: Domestic violence and an anti‐abuse helpline campaign," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(4), pages 585-611, October.
    15. Donnelly, Grant E. & Simester, Duncan I. & Norton, Michael I., 2021. "The short and long-run impact of empowering customers in corporate social responsibility initiatives," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 616-637.
    16. Abel Brodeur, 2012. "Smoking, Income and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Smoking Bans," Working Papers halshs-00664269, HAL.
    17. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    18. Villas-Boas, Sofia B, 2020. "Reduced Form Evidence on Belief Updating Under Asymmetric Information," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt08c456vk, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    19. Dautović, Ernest & Gambacorta, Leonardo & Reghezza, Alessio, 2023. "Supervisory policy stimulus: evidence from the euro area dividend recommendation," Working Paper Series 2796, European Central Bank.
    20. Nan Yang & Yong Long Lim, 2018. "Temporary Incentives Change Daily Routines: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Singapore’s Subways," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3365-3379, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gini Index; McKay’s Approximation;

    JEL classification:

    • C02 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Mathematical Economics
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:mareco:v:8:y:2014:i:3:p:237-256. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ncaer.org/ .

    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.