IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bol/bodewp/wp1130.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The evaluation of gender income inequality by means of the Gini index decomposition

Author

Listed:
  • M. Costa

Abstract

This paper proposes to measure and to evaluate gender gaps and gender inequalities by means of the decomposition of an inequality measure. A three-terms decomposition of the Gini index is applied, thus allowing to take into account also the role of overlapping between female and male subpopulations. We develop an unified framework for the evaluation of gender gap, linking traditional measures, based on subgroups income means, to the approach related to inequality decomposition, and showing how overlapping component represents a key issue in gender gap analysis. An analysis of the income distribution of the Italian households shows how gender gaps represent a major source of inequality, without particular improvements during the last 20 years.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bol:bodewp:wp1130
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://amsacta.unibo.it/6192/1/WP1130.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chiara Mussida & Matteo Picchio, 2014. "The gender wage gap by education in Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(1), pages 117-147, March.
    2. Alyssa Schneebaum & Miriam Rehm & Katharina Mader & Katarina Hollan, 2018. "The Gender Wealth Gap Across European Countries," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 295-331, June.
    3. Anthony B. Atkinson & Alessandra Casarico & Sarah Voitchovsky, 2018. "Top incomes and the gender divide," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 225-256, June.
    4. Monica Amici & Maria Lucia Stefani, 2013. "A gender equality index for the Italian regions," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 190, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. M. Grazia Pittau & Shlomo Yitzhaki & Roberto Zelli, 2015. "The “Make-up” of a Regression Coefficient: Gender Gaps in the European Labor Market," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 401-421, September.
    6. Chris Elbers & Peter Lanjouw & Johan Mistiaen & Berk Özler, 2008. "Reinterpreting between-group inequality," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(3), pages 231-245, September.
    7. Chantreuil, Frédéric & Lebon, Isabelle, 2015. "Gender contribution to income inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 27-30.
    8. Ebert, Udo, 2010. "The decomposition of inequality reconsidered: Weakly decomposable measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 94-103, September.
    9. Ekaterina Selezneva & Philippe Van Kerm, 2016. "A distribution-sensitive examination of the gender wage gap in Germany," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 21-40, March.
    10. 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.
    11. Ogwang Tomson, 2014. "A Convenient Method of Decomposing the Gini Index by Population Subgroups," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 30(1), pages 91-105, March.
    12. Carole Bonnet & Dominique Meurs & Benoît Rapoport, 2018. "Gender inequalities in pensions: different components similar levels of dispersion," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(4), pages 527-552, December.
    13. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Schneebaum, Alyssa & Silgoner, Maria, 2018. "Decomposing gender gaps in financial literacy: New international evidence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 102-106.
    14. repec:zbw:hohpro:325 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Benito Frosini, 2012. "Approximation and decomposition of Gini, Pietra–Ricci and Theil inequality measures," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 175-197, August.
    16. Giovanni Maria Giorgi, 2005. "Gini's scientific work: an evergreen," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(3), pages 299-315.
    17. 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.
    18. Daniele Checchi & Vito Peragine, 2010. "Inequality of opportunity in Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 429-450, December.
    19. Carole Bonnet & Dominique Meurs & Benoît Rapoport, 2018. "Gender inequalities in pensions: different components similar levels of dispersion," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(4), pages 527-552, December.
    20. Tabea Bucher-Koenen & Annamaria Lusardi & Rob Alessie & Maarten van Rooij, 2017. "How Financially Literate Are Women? An Overview and New Insights," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 255-283, July.
    21. Michele Costa, 2009. "Transvariation and inequality between subpopulations in the Dagum’s Gini index decomposition," Metron - International Journal of Statistics, Dipartimento di Statistica, Probabilità e Statistiche Applicate - University of Rome, vol. 0(3), pages 229-241.
    22. Dagum, Camilo, 1997. "A New Approach to the Decomposition of the Gini Income Inequality Ratio," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 515-531.
    23. Karolina Goraus & Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas Velde, 2017. "Which Gender Wage Gap Estimates to Trust? A Comparative Analysis," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(1), pages 118-146, March.
    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. Michele Costa, 2016. "Overlapping component and inequality decomposition: a simulation study for the Gini index," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 74(2), pages 193-205, August.
    2. 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.
    3. Francesca Battisti & Francesco Porro, 2023. "A multi-decomposition of Zenga-84 inequality index: an application to the disparity in CO $$_2$$ 2 emissions in European countries," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 32(3), pages 957-981, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Michael A. Nelson & Rajeev K. Goel, 2023. "Spillovers from gender equality onto economic equality: Evidence from 162 nations," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1365-1388, August.
    6. Giuseppe Pignataro & Michele Costa, 2023. "The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index and the inequality factors: an analysis through the Gini index decomposition," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(2), pages 483-497, June.
    7. Madhabendra Sinha & Anjan Ray Chaudhury, 2021. "Assessing the Between-Group Inequality Through Alternative Measures of Grouping: An Indian Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(3), pages 1021-1045, October.
    8. Francesco Porro & Michele Zenga, 2020. "Decomposition by subpopulations of the Zenga-84 inequality curve and the related index $$\zeta $$ζ: an application to 2014 Bank of Italy survey," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 29(1), pages 187-207, March.
    9. Michele Zenga, 2016. "On the decomposition by subpopulations of the point and synthetic Zenga (2007) inequality indexes," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 74(3), pages 375-405, December.
    10. Chiara Gigliarano & Daniel Nowak & Karl Mosler, 2019. "A Polarization Index for Overlapping Groups," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 712-735, December.
    11. Maria Giovanna Monti & Simone Pellegrino & Achille Vernizzi, 2015. "On Measuring Inequity in Taxation Among Groups of Income Units," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(1), pages 43-58, March.
    12. Joanna Tyrowicz & Lucas van der Velde, 2017. "When the opportunity knocks: large structural shocks and gender wage gaps," GRAPE Working Papers 2, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    13. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    14. Stéphane Mussard & Kuan Xu, 2006. "Multidimensional Decomposition of the Sen Index: Some Further Thoughts," Cahiers de recherche 06-08, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    15. Pedro Salas-Rojo & Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2022. "Inheritances and wealth inequality: a machine learning approach," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(1), pages 27-51, March.
    16. Charles Condevaux & Stéphane Mussard & Téa Ouraga & Guillaume Zambrano, 2020. "Generalized Gini linear and quadratic discriminant analyses," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(2), pages 219-236, August.
    17. Cupák, Andrej & Fessler, Pirmin & Schneebaum, Alyssa, 2021. "Gender differences in risky asset behavior: The importance of self-confidence and financial literacy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    18. Modalsli, Jørgen, 2011. "Inequality and growth in the very long run: inferring inequality from data on social groups," Memorandum 11/2011, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    19. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    20. Allanson, Paul, 2017. "Monitoring income-related health differences between regions in Great Britain: A new measure for ordinal health data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 72-80.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:bol:bodewp:wp1130. 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: Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sebolit.html .

    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.