Statistics and Probability Commons^™

Theory And Methods For Gini Coefficients Partitioned By Quantile Range, Chaitra Nagaraja

Chaitra H Nagaraja

The Gini coefficient is frequently used to measure inequality in populations. However, it is possible that inequality levels may change over time differently for disparate subgroups which cannot be detected with population-level estimates only. Therefore, it may be informative to examine inequality separately for these segments. The case where the population is split into two segments based on non-overlapping quantile ranges is examined. Asymptotic theory is derived and practical methods to estimate standard errors and construct confidence intervals using resampling methods are developed. An application to per capita income across census tracts using American Community Survey data is considered.