IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vig/wpaper/0801.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What are we assuming when using inequality measures to quantify geographic concentration? An axiomatic approach

Author

Listed:
  • Olga Alonso-Villar

Abstract

This paper formally shows the parallel that exists between inequality and spatial concentration measurement. This examination allows us to unveil the properties that the literature is implicitly assuming when using inequality measures to quantify the spatial concentration of economic activity. Thus, the properties satisfied by the Gini index and the generalized entropy family when using them to analyze location patterns are shown. In addition, another inequality-based concentration measure is proposed. Finally, the basic properties of the concentration measurement when using “employment Lorenz curves” are unveiled, and additive decompositions of these curves are proposed.

Suggested Citation

  • Olga Alonso-Villar, 2008. "What are we assuming when using inequality measures to quantify geographic concentration? An axiomatic approach," Working Papers 0801, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    • Handle: RePEc:vig:wpaper:0801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://webx06.webs8.uvigo.es/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/wp0801.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Hutchens, 2004. "One Measure of Segregation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 45(2), pages 555-578, May.
    2. Gilles Duranton & Henry G. Overman, 2005. "Testing for Localization Using Micro-Geographic Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1077-1106.
    3. Jens Suedekum, 2006. "Concentration and Specialization Trends in Germany since Re-unification," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 861-873.
    4. Joeri Gorter & S. Brakman & Albert van der Horst & H.F.L. Garretsen & M. Schram, 2005. "New economic geography, empirics, and regional policy," CPB Special Publication 56, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    5. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2008. "Occupational and industrial segregation of female and male workers in Spain: An alternative approach," Working Papers 84, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Karl Aiginger & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2004. "The Single Market and Geographic Concentration in Europe," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, February.
    7. Paulo Guimarães & Octávio Figueiredo & Douglas Woodward, 2007. "Measuring The Localization Of Economic Activity: A Parametric Approach," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 753-774, October.
    8. Cowell, F.A., 2000. "Measurement of inequality," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 2, pages 87-166, Elsevier.
    9. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Del R�o, 2008. "Geographical Concentration of Unemployment: A Male-Female Comparison in Spain," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 401-412, April.
    10. Haaland, J.I. & Kind, H.J. & knarvik, K.H.M. & Torstensson, J., 1998. "What Determines the Economic Geography of Europe?," Papers 19/98, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration-.
    11. Mary Amiti, 1999. "Specialization patterns in Europe," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 135(4), pages 573-593, December.
    12. Casey J. Dawkins, 2007. "Space And The Measurement Of Income Segregation," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 255-272, May.
    13. Joeri Gorter & Albert Van der Horst, 2005. "New Economic Geography, Empirics, and Regional Policy," ERSA conference papers ersa05p236, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Brulhart, Marius & Traeger, Rolf, 2005. "An account of geographic concentration patterns in Europe," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 597-624, November.
    15. Hutchens, Robert M., 1991. "Segregation curves, Lorenz curves, and inequality in the distribution of people across occupations," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 31-51, February.
    16. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2003. "Evaluating the Geographic Concentration of Industries Using Distance-Based Methods," Post-Print halshs-00372646, HAL.
    17. Maurel, Francoise & Sedillot, Beatrice, 1999. "A measure of the geographic concentration in french manufacturing industries," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 575-604, September.
    18. Anthony Shorrocks & Guanghua Wan, 2005. "Spatial decomposition of inequality," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 59-81, January.
    19. Moyes, Patrick, 1987. "A new concept of Lorenz domination," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 203-207.
    20. Coral del Río & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2007. "An alternative proposal for measuring occupational segregation," Working Papers 82, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    21. J.Peter Neary, 2001. "Of Hype and Hyperbolas: Introducing the New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 536-561, June.
    22. John A. Bishop & K. Victor Chow & Lester A. Zeager, 2003. "Decomposing Lorenz and Concentration Curves," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(3), pages 965-978, August.
    23. Satya Chakravarty, 2001. "The Variance as a subgroup decomposable measure of inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 79-95, January.
    24. Bickenbach, Frank & Bode, Eckhardt, 2006. "Disproportionality measures of concentration, specialization, and polarization," Kiel Working Papers 1276, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    25. J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), 2004. "Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    26. Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2003. "Evaluating the geographic concentration of industries using distance-based methods," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 3(4), pages 409-428, October.
    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. Olga Alonso-Villar, 2011. "Measuring concentration: Lorenz curves and their decompositions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 47(2), pages 451-475, October.
    2. Cutrini, Eleonora, 2009. "Using entropy measures to disentangle regional from national localization patterns," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 243-250, March.
    3. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral del Río, 2009. "Geographic Concentration of Economic Activity: An aggregate index," Working Papers 0901, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    4. Olga Alonso-Villar & Coral Del RÍo, 2012. "Concentration of Economic Activity: Inequality-Based Measures," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 223-246, June.
    5. HAEDO, Christian & MOUCHART, Michel, 2012. "A stochastic independence approach for different measures of concentration and specialization," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2012025, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    6. Di Giacinto, Valter & Pagnini, Marcello, 2011. "Local and global agglomeration patterns: Two econometrics-based indicators," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 266-280, May.
    7. Bagoulla, Corinne & Péridy, Nicolas, 2011. "Market access and the other determinants of North–South manufacturing location choice: An application to the Euro-Mediterranean area," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 537-561.
    8. Maria Dav? & Isidora Barbaccia, 2015. "Measuring agglomeration by spatial effects: a proposal," RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA E STATISTICA DEL TERRITORIO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(1), pages 44-70.
    9. Frank Bickenbach & Eckhardt Bode, 2008. "Disproportionality Measures of Concentration, Specialization, and Localization," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 31(4), pages 359-388, October.
    10. Anne Otto & Michaela Fuchs & Wolfgang Dauth, 2011. "Long-term processes of regional concentration and dispersion - fuzzy evidence for Western Germany," ERSA conference papers ersa10p537, European Regional Science Association.
    11. Valter Di Giacinto & Marcello Pagnini, 2008. "Agglomeration within and between regions: Two econometric based indicators," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 674, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    12. Eleonora CUTRINI, 2006. "The Balassa Index Meets the Dissimilarity Theil Index: a Decomposition Methodology for Location Studies," Working Papers 274, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    13. Alonso-Villar, Olga & del Río, Coral, 2010. "Local versus overall segregation measures," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 30-38, July.
    14. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2010:i:062 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Jens Suedekum, 2006. "Concentration and Specialization Trends in Germany since Re-unification," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(8), pages 861-873.
    16. Brulhart, Marius & Traeger, Rolf, 2005. "An account of geographic concentration patterns in Europe," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 597-624, November.
    17. Wolfgang Dauth & Michaela Fuchs & Anne Otto, 2018. "Long‐run processes of geographical concentration and dispersion: Evidence from Germany," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 97(3), pages 569-593, August.
    18. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Overman, Henry G., 2004. "The spatial distribution of economic activities in the European Union," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 64, pages 2845-2909, Elsevier.
    19. Marta R. Casanova & Vicente Orts & José M. Albert, 2017. "Sectoral scope and colocalisation of Spanish manufacturing industries," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 65-92, January.
    20. Bickenbach, Frank & Bode, Eckhardt, 2006. "Disproportionality measures of concentration, specialization, and polarization," Kiel Working Papers 1276, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    21. Gabriel Lang & Eric Marcon & Florence Puech, 2020. "Distance-based measures of spatial concentration: introducing a relative density function," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 64(2), pages 243-265, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality measures; Segregation; Geographic concentration; Axioms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:vig:wpaper:0801. 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: Departamento de Economía Aplicada (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deviges.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.