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Can a single indicator measure both attainment and shortfall inequality?

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  • Erreygers, Guido

Abstract

When a distribution can be described either in terms of attainment or in terms of shortfall, the classical inequality measures appear to be one-sided. I show that it is possible to find indicators which simultaneously measure attainment and shortfall inequality. I derive one indicator belonging to the Gini family, and another belonging to Coefficient of Variation family. I also indicate how they are connected to other measures.

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  • Erreygers, Guido, 2009. "Can a single indicator measure both attainment and shortfall inequality?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 885-893, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:28:y:2009:i:4:p:885-893
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    2. Md Irteja Islam & Gail M Ormsby & Enamul Kabir & Rasheda Khanam, 2021. "Estimating income-related and area-based inequalities in mental health among nationally representative adolescents in Australia: The concentration index approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-14, September.
    3. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & van Gool, Kees & Hall, Jane, 2020. "Horizontal inequity in the utilisation of healthcare services in Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(11), pages 1263-1271.
    4. Moreno-Ternero, Juan D. & Platz, Trine Tornøe & Østerdal, Lars Peter, 2023. "QALYs, DALYs, and HALYs: A unifying framework for the evaluation of population health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2022. "Consistent and inconsistent inequality indices for ordinal variables," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    6. Lambert, Peter & Zheng, Buhong, 2011. "On the consistent measurement of attainment and shortfall inequality," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 214-219, January.
    7. Rohde, Kirsten I.M. & Van Ourti, Tom & Soebhag, Amar, 2023. "Reducing socioeconomic health inequalities? A questionnaire study of majorization and invariance conditions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Lasso de la Vega, Casilda & Aristondo, Oihana, 2012. "Proposing indicators to measure achievement and shortfall inequality consistently," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 578-583.

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