Re: Rich-poor gap measure

["Nguyen Tien Zung" <tienzung@darboux.math.univ-montp2.fr>]

Hi anh Huy

Thank you for explaining the Lorenz curve. Sorry for the ignorance, could
you (or other economists here) please say a few words about Lorenz himself?

What are his other contributions, besides this curve?
(I suppose he's not that physicist Lorenz).

Cheers, Z

> However, economic books use what they call Lorenz curves (LC).
> An LC plots the percentage of wealth owned on the y axis
> against the percentage of popuplation on the x axis (after
> suitable ordering of course). If wealth is equally distributed
> then the LC id a straight line with gradient 1. Deviations from this 
> straightline mean inequality. (Imagine that the LC hangs like
> a hamock at 45%. This would mean that the first 50% of the
> population have less than 50% of the nation's wealth and the 2nd
> 50% have more than 50%. The lower the hamock, the less the first
> 50% have and the more unequal the wealth distribution). This 
> graphical representation facilitates the seeing of the difference
> in wealth, not the ratio, as the rich-poor gap.