Components of Gini, Bonferroni, and Zenga Inequality Indexes for EU Income Data

Abstract

In this work we apply a new approach to assess contributions from factor components to income inequality. The new approach is based on the insight that most (synthetic) inequality indexes may be viewed as (weighted) averages of point inequality measures, which measure inequality between population subgroups identified by income. Assessing contributions of factor components to point inequality measures is usually an easy task, and based on these contributions it is straightforward to define contributions to the corresponding (synthetic) overall inequality indexes as well. As we shall show through an analysis of income data from Eurostat’s European Community Household Panel Survey (ECHP), the approach based on point inequality measures gives rise to readily interpretable results, which, we believe, is an advantage over other methods that have been proposed in literature.