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1、MeasuresofIncomeInequalityandEconomicGrowthMeasuresofIncomeInequalityandEconomicGrowthSept.2004PakHungMoHongKongBaptistUniversity,SchoolofBusinessKowloonTong,HongKong.1AbstractTherearemanymeasuresofincomeinequalityandalsomanydiscussionsonthedifferencesbetweenthemeasures.Inthisstud
2、y,wefindthatseveralmeasuresofincomeinequalitydocapturedifferenteffectsoneconomicbehaviorandperformance.Ifwewanttopredicttheeffectsofinequalityoneconomicgrowthandsocio-politicalstability,themiddle-quintileincomeshareoutperformsthecommonlyadoptedGinicoefficient.Weopenupanewwayforloo
3、kingintohowdifferentmeasuresofinequalityinaffectingeconomicgrowthandsomecommonlysuggestedtransmissionchannels.JELClassification:O15,O31.2I.IntroductionTherearemanymeasuresofincomeinequalityandalsomanydiscussionsonthedifferencesbetweenthemeasures.However,mostofthediscussionsareonly
4、oftheoreticalinterest.Toourbestknowledge,therearenocomparativestudiesontheempiricalimplicationsofvariousmeasurements.Itiswidelyrecognizedthattherecanbenosingle‘best’measureofincomedistributioninequality.Thechoiceofameasuredependsontheparticularaspectofinequalityinwhichoneisinteres
5、ted.Amongvariousmeasures,themostpopularoneistheGinicoefficient.However,thereareseveraldisadvantagesofthemeasure.Thecoefficientisinsensitivetochangesinincomedistributionandtoerrorsofmeasurement.Theobservedrangeofvariationwithinacountryovertimeissmallwhencomparingwiththepossiblesamp
6、lingerrors.Moreover,theratiodoesnotdistinguishbetweendifferentlocationsofinequalitywithintheincomerange;forexample,betweentheeffectsofunemploymentincreasingatthelowendduringdepressions,andtheeffectsofdividendsincreasingitatthehighendduringprosperity.[Bronfenbrenner,1971]Inparticul
7、ar,wecansaythatadistributionismoreequalthantheotheraccordingtotheGinimeasurementiftheLorenzcurveofadistributionliesentirelyabovethatofanother.However,whentheLorenzcurvesoftwodistributionsintersecteachother,themeasurementbecomesinconclusive.Asimplestatisticalmeasureofinequalityisth
8、erange,thedifferencebetweenthelar
