IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v35y2013icp944-963.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The (α, β)-multi-level α-Gini decomposition with an illustration to income inequality in France in 2005

Author

Listed:
  • Mornet, Pauline
  • Zoli, Claudio
  • Mussard, Stéphane
  • Sadefo-Kamdem, Jules
  • Seyte, Françoise
  • Terraza, Michel

Abstract

We propose a generalization of the decomposition by population subgroups of the α-Gini index, the so-called multi-level subgroup decomposition. We demonstrate that all components obtained from the decomposition, can integrate in their functional form a parameter of inequality sensitivity being either related to overall inequalities (α) or to between-group non-overlappings (β). We prove that a decision maker who behaves in accordance with the α-Gini indices is sensitive to the inequalities between the groups when this sensitivity may differ for each partition of groups. For that purpose, we check the axiomatic foundations of this new family of measures providing also a characterization for the α-Gini indices where α>2. An illustration of the multi-level α-Gini decomposition is performed for the analysis of the income disparities in France in 2005.

Suggested Citation

  • Mornet, Pauline & Zoli, Claudio & Mussard, Stéphane & Sadefo-Kamdem, Jules & Seyte, Françoise & Terraza, Michel, 2013. "The (α, β)-multi-level α-Gini decomposition with an illustration to income inequality in France in 2005," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 944-963.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:35:y:2013:i:c:p:944-963
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2013.06.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999313002332
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2013.06.016?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Celestin Chameni Nembua, 2006. "A note on the decomposition of the coefficient of variation squared: comparing entropy and Dagum's methods," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(8), pages 1-8.
    3. Peter J. Lambert & Andre' Decoster, 2005. "The Gini coefficient reveals more," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(3), pages 373-400.
    4. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. II," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 82-111, August.
    5. Yitzhaki, Shlomo & Lerman, Robert I, 1991. "Income Stratification and Income Inequality," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(3), pages 313-329, September.
    6. Irma Adelman & Amnon Levy, 1984. "Decomposing Theil'S Income Of Income Inequality Into Between And Within Components: A Note," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 30(1), pages 119-121, March.
    7. Anthony F. Shorrocks & James E. Foster, 1987. "Transfer Sensitive Inequality Measures," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 54(3), pages 485-497.
    8. Mehran, Farhad, 1976. "Linear Measures of Income Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(4), pages 805-809, July.
    9. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. I," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 416-442, June.
    10. Cowell, Frank A., 1980. "Generalized entropy and the measurement of distributional change," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 147-159, January.
    11. Rafael Salas, 2002. "Multilevel interterritorial convergence and additive multidimensional inequality decomposition," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 19(1), pages 207-218.
    12. Stéphane Mussard & Pi Alperin María Noel & Françoise Seyte & Michel Terraza, 2005. "Extensions Of Dagum’S Gini Decomposition," Cahiers de recherche 05-07, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    13. Masato Okamoto, 2009. "Decomposition of gini and multivariate gini indices," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(2), pages 153-177, June.
    14. Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1984. "Inequality Decomposition by Population Subgroups," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(6), pages 1369-1385, November.
    15. Ebert, Udo, 2010. "The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 94-103, September.
    16. Claudio Zoli, 2002. "Inverse stochastic dominance, inequality measurement and Gini indices," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 119-161, December.
    17. Chateauneuf, Alain & Gajdos, Thibault & Wilthien, Pierre-Henry, 2002. "The Principle of Strong Diminishing Transfer," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 311-333, April.
    18. Dagum, Camilo, 1980. "Inequality Measures between Income Distributions with Applications," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(7), pages 1791-1803, November.
    19. Stéphane Mussard & Michel Terraza, 2009. "Décompositions des mesures d'inégalité : le cas des coefficients de Gini et d'entropie," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 75(2), pages 151-181.
    20. Bourguignon, Francois, 1979. "Decomposable Income Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 901-920, July.
    21. Dagum, Camilo, 1997. "A New Approach to the Decomposition of the Gini Income Inequality Ratio," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 515-531.
    22. Célestin Chameni Nembua, 2006. "Linking Gini to Entropy : Measuring Inequality by an interpersonal class of indices," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(5), pages 1-9.
    23. Cowell, Frank A, 1985. "Multilevel Decomposition of Theil's Index of Inequality [Decomposing Theil's Index of Inequality into Between and Within Components: A Note]," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 31(2), pages 201-205, June.
    24. Adelman, Irma & Levy, Amnon, 1984. "Decomposing Theil's Income of Income Inequality into Between and Within Components: A Note," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 30(1), pages 119-121, March.
    25. Fishlow, Albert, 1972. "Brazilian Size Distribution of Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 391-402, May.
    26. Shlomo Yitzhaki & Robert I. Lerman, 1991. "Income Stratification And Income Inequality," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(3), pages 313-329, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christian Ahlin & Hyeok Jeong, 2021. "A conditional Gini: measure, estimation, and application," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(2), pages 363-384, June.
    2. Stéphane Mussard & Pauline Mornet, 2019. "A Note on α‐Gini Measures," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(3), pages 675-682, September.
    3. Mauro Mussini, 2017. "Decomposing Changes in Inequality and Welfare Between EU Regions: The Roles of Population Change, Re-Ranking and Income Growth," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 455-478, January.
    4. Sun, Chuanwang & Zhang, Yifan & Peng, Shuijun & Zhang, Wencheng, 2015. "The inequalities of public utility products in China: From the perspective of the Atkinson index," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 751-760.
    5. M. Costa, 2019. "The evaluation of gender income inequality by means of the Gini index decomposition," Working Papers wp1130, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    6. Makdissi, Paul & Sylla, Daouda & Yazbeck, Myra, 2013. "Decomposing health achievement and socioeconomic health inequalities in presence of multiple categorical information," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 964-968.

    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. Stéphane Mussard & Françoise Seyte & Michel Terraza, 2006. "La décomposition de l’indicateur de Gini en sous-groupes : une revue de la littérature," Cahiers de recherche 06-11, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    2. Stéphane Mussard & Michel Terraza, 2009. "Décompositions des mesures d'inégalité : le cas des coefficients de Gini et d'entropie," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 75(2), pages 151-181.
    3. Peter Lambert & Giuseppe Lanza, 2006. "The effect on inequality of changing one or two incomes," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 253-277, December.
    4. Peter Lambert, & Giuseppe Lanza, 2003. "The effect on inequality of changing one or two incomes," IFS Working Papers W03/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    5. Buhong Zheng, 2021. "Stochastic dominance and decomposable measures of inequality and poverty," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(2), pages 228-247, April.
    6. Stéphane Mussard, 2007. "Between-Group Pigou Dalton Transfers," Cahiers de recherche 07-06, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    7. Mornet, Pauline, 2016. "On the axiomatization of the weakly decomposable inequality indices," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 71-78.
    8. Ebert, Udo, 2010. "The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 94-103, September.
    9. I. Josa & A. Aguado, 2020. "Measuring Unidimensional Inequality: Practical Framework for the Choice of an Appropriate Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(2), pages 541-570, June.
    10. Teixidó Figueras, Jordi & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2012. "Ecological Footprint Inequality: A methodological review and some results," Working Papers 2072/203168, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Rolf Aaberge, 2009. "Ranking intersecting Lorenz curves," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 33(2), pages 235-259, August.
    12. Mussard, Stéphane & Pi Alperin, Maria Noel, 2011. "Poverty growth in Scandinavian countries: A Sen multi-decomposition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 2842-2853.
    13. Brice Magdalou, 2018. "Income inequality measurement: a fresh look at two old issues," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 51(3), pages 415-435, October.
    14. Frank A Cowell, 2003. "Theil, Inequality and the Structure of Income Distribution," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 67, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    15. Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Juan Duro, 2015. "International Ecological Footprint Inequality: A Methodological Review and Some Results," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(4), pages 607-631, April.
    16. Michele Giammatteo, 2007. "The bidimensional decomposition of inequality: A nested Theil approach," LIS Working papers 466, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    17. W. Henry Chiu, 2021. "Intersecting Lorenz curves and aversion to inverse downside inequality," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 56(3), pages 487-508, April.
    18. Francesco Andreoli & Claudio Zoli, 2020. "From unidimensional to multidimensional inequality: a review," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(1), pages 5-42, April.
    19. Foster, James E. & Shneyerov, Artyom A., 2000. "Path Independent Inequality Measures," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 199-222, April.
    20. Benito Frosini, 2012. "Approximation and decomposition of Gini, Pietra–Ricci and Theil inequality measures," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 175-197, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality aversion; α-Gini; Multi-level decomposition; Subgroup decomposition;
    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
    • D69 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Other

    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:eee:ecmode:v:35:y:2013:i:c:p:944-963. 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.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.