Premium
A Proposal to Compare Consistently the Inequality Among the Poor
Author(s) -
Aristondo Oihana,
Goerlich Gisbert Francisco J.,
Lasso De La Vega Casilda
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
review of income and wealth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1475-4991
pISSN - 0034-6586
DOI - 10.1111/roiw.12086
Subject(s) - inequality , economics , reinterpretation , poverty , index (typography) , econometrics , economic inequality , income inequality metrics , mathematics , economic growth , mathematical analysis , physics , world wide web , computer science , acoustics
A poverty index should be sensitive to the number of poor people, the extent of the shortfall of the poor, and the inequality among the poor. A difficulty arises when inequality among the poor needs to be assessed. The inequality may be analyzed in terms of either incomes or gaps. Depending on what side we focus on, the inequality level comparisons may be contradictory. This paper proposes a reinterpretation of the inequality component involved in the decompositions of well‐known poverty indices. The alternative indices we introduce measure equally the income and gap inequality among the poor. The comparisons in inequality as measured by these indices are then independent of the viewpoint. An empirical application illustrates the proposal.