IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/lat/lateco/1999-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Gini index, inequality comparisons and maximin axiom: a paradox

Author

Listed:
  • MESNARD, Louis de

    (LATEC - CNRS UMR 5601 - Université de Bourgogne)

Abstract

Inequality is appreciated only through a relevant measure, traditionally the Gini index, but this one presents a weakness that prevents to consider it as valid: to a same Gini may correspond many distributions. For the most simple case, a concentration curve with two linear segments, a criterion is proposed, based on the maximin: beside curves with same Gini, the more egalitarian is those in which each poor has the higher revenue. However, this does not allow to decide for two curves with different Gini: two indeterminate zones appear. This is extended to curves with three linear segments and two kinks. Keywords : Gini; maximin; Lorenz; concentration; inequality

Suggested Citation

  • MESNARD, Louis de, 1999. "Gini index, inequality comparisons and maximin axiom: a paradox," LATEC - Document de travail - Economie (1991-2003) 9902, LATEC, Laboratoire d'Analyse et des Techniques EConomiques, CNRS UMR 5118, Université de Bourgogne.
    • Handle: RePEc:lat:lateco:1999-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C43 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Index Numbers and Aggregation
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty

    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:lat:lateco:1999-02. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/latecfr.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.