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On Income Inequality and Population Size

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  • Sitthiyot, Thitithep
  • Holasut, Kanyarat

Abstract

The pursuit of having an appropriate level of income inequality should be viewed as one of the biggest challenges facing academic scholars as well as policy makers. Unfortunately, research on this issue is currently lacking. This study is the first to introduce the theoretical concept of targeted level of income inequality for a given size of population. By employing the World Bank’s data on population size and Gini coefficient from sixty-nine countries in 2012, this study finds that the relationship between Gini coefficient and natural logarithm of population size is nonlinear in the form of a second degree polynomial function. The estimated results using regression analysis show that the majority of countries in the sample have Gini coefficients either too high or too low compared to their appropriate values. These findings could be used as a guideline for policy makers before designing and implementing public policies in order to achieve the targeted level of income inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Sitthiyot, Thitithep & Holasut, Kanyarat, 2016. "On Income Inequality and Population Size," MPRA Paper 73684, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:73684
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mihai MUTASCU & Nicolae-Bogdan IANC & Albert LESSOUA, 2021. "Public debt and inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of EMCCA and WAEMU countries," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2911, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income Inequality; Gini Coefficient; Population Size;
    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
    • J19 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Other

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