Shaikh and Ragab’s Incomes of the Vast Majority: Some Additions and Extensions
Tóm tắt
The ‘vast majority of incomes ratio (VMIR)’ R
0 is the ratio of the average income µ
0 of a poorest majority p
0 of the population to the overall average income µ. Another measure of equality is E
0=(1-G) , where G is the Gini coefficient of inequality of the distribution. Shaikh and Ragab (2007, 2008), employing a wide variety of data sets, have shown (among other things), that when p
0 is 70 %, R
0 serves as a uniformly stable and excellent approximation of E
0. We extend the Shaikh-Ragab findings in two directions. We explore some analytics of the relationship between R
0 and E
0 for a lognormal distribution; and we derive a couple of other V
M
I
R
s and related measures of welfare which are distinct from but inspired by the Shaikh-Ragab formulations.
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