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‘Williamson’s Fallacy’ in Estimation of Inter-Regional Inequality

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  • Gluschenko, Konstantin

Abstract

Following Williamson (1965), many economists estimate inter-regional inequality with the use of indexes weighted by regions’ shares in the national population. Despite that widespread, this approach is conceptually inconsistent, yielding an estimate of interpersonal inequality among the whole population of the country rather than an estimate of inter-regional inequality. On the other hand, if one considers such an estimate as a proxy of population inequality, it is very rough and for the most part misleading.

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  • Gluschenko, Konstantin, 2015. "‘Williamson’s Fallacy’ in Estimation of Inter-Regional Inequality," MPRA Paper 68019, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:68019
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality index Weighting by population Williamson coefficient of variation Gini coefficient;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • R10 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - General

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