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The Gini Index and Measures of Inequality

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 117; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4169/000298910x523344

1930-0972

Frank A. Farris,

Economic theories and models

The Gini index is a summary statistic that measures how equitably a resource is distributed in a population; income is a primary example. In addition to a self-contained presentation of the Gini index, we give two equivalent ways to interpret this summary statistic: first in terms of the percentile level of the person who earns the average dollar, and second in terms of how the lower of two randomly chosen incomes compares, on average, to mean income.