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On Dagum’s Decomposition of the Gini Coefficient

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  • William Griffiths

Abstract

To measure the contributions to inequality from population subgroups, the Gini coefficient is often decomposed into inequality within groups, inequality between groups and a residual term arising from the overlapping of income distributions from different groups. In this paper we show that two decompositions presented separately in the literature, a traditional decomposition and a decomposition suggested by Dagum (1997), are identical, a fact not previously acknowledged in the literature

Suggested Citation

  • William Griffiths, 2008. "On Dagum’s Decomposition of the Gini Coefficient," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1054, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:mlb:wpaper:1054
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    File URL: http://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/802744/1054.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Branko Milanovic, 2002. "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculation Based on Household Surveys Alone," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 51-92, January.
    2. repec:bla:obuest:v:63:y:2001:i:3:p:381-94 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Lambert, Peter J & Aronson, J Richard, 1993. "Inequality Decomposition Analysis and the Gini Coefficient Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(420), pages 1221-1227, September.
    4. Justin Van De Ven & John Creedy & Peter J. Lambert, 2001. "Close Equals and Calculation of the Vertical, Horizontal and Reranking Effects of Taxation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 63(3), pages 381-394, July.
    5. Sastry, D V S & Kelkar, Ujwala R, 1994. "Note on the Decomposition of Gini Inequality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(3), pages 584-586, August.
    6. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1994. "Economic distance and overlapping of distributions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 147-159, March.
    7. Dagum, Camilo, 1997. "A New Approach to the Decomposition of the Gini Income Inequality Ratio," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 515-531.
    8. Silber, Jacques, 1989. "Factor Components, Population Subgroups and the Computation of the Gini Index of Inequality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(1), pages 107-115, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    population subgroups; between inequality; within inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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