Educating Ju-chang (Gini indeces etc)

[elena]

Is  this paper OK to use as an introduction? Slow downloading time (ab 20
minutes)
It's a very educational experience, being on this list, yet although the
dummies are a negligible minority here, please, guys, don't take our
knowledge for granted when stupid questions are raised. Any info (even "a
good introductory book" is damn hard to find - easier to do so on the Net).
Another Dummy
http://ideas.uqam.ca/ideas/data/Papers/wopkoelse9507.html
Multivariate Gini Indices
Koshevoy, G.A.

  Mosler, K. (Seminar fuer Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistik, Universitaet zu
Koeln, Meister-Ekkehart-Str. 9/II, 0923 Koeln, Germany)

     The Gini index and the Gini mean difference of a univariate
distribution are extended to measure the disparity of a general $d$-variate
distribution. We propose and investigate two approaches, one based on the
distance of the distribution from itself, the other on the volume of a
convex set in$(d+1)$-space, named the lift zonoid of the distribution. When
$d=1$, this volume equals the area

     between the usual Lorenz curve and the line of zero disparity, up to a
scale factor. We get two

     definitions of the multivariate Gini index, which are different (when
$d > 1$) but connected through

     the notion of the lift zonoid. Both notions inherit properties of the
univariate Gini index, in

     particular, they are vector scale invariant, continuous, bounded by $0$
and $1$, and the bounds

     are sharp. They vanish if and only if the distribution is concentrated
at one point. The indices have

     a ceteris paribus property and are consistent with multivariate
extensions of the Lorenz order.

     Illustrations with data conclude the paper.

Creation: 1995
Keywords: Dilation; Disparity measurement; Gini mean difference; Lift
zonoid; Lorenz order.
Length: 21 pages
Handle: RePEc:wop:koelse:9507

Paper provided by Universitaet zu Koeln in its series Statistics and
Econometrics as number 7/95