A note on the relationship between top income shares and the Gini coefficient

C-Tier
Journal: Economics Letters
Year: 2011
Volume: 110
Issue: 3
Pages: 274-277

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 0.5x C-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

When a very top group of the income distribution, infinitesimal in numbers, owns a finite share S of total income, the Gini coefficient G can be approximated by G*(1 - S) + S, where G* is the Gini coefficient for the rest of the population. We provide a simple formal proof for this expression, give a general formula of the relationship when the top group is not infinitesimal, and offer two applications as illustrations.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:ecolet:v:110:y:2011:i:3:p:274-277
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-24