Measuring Income Inequality

With income inequality also comes a lot of issues for New Yorkers such as homelessness and not being able to afford necessary things such clothing, food, and transportation. The inequality of income mostly affects the middle and lower class in New York. According to Census Bureau done in 2010, it was stated that in 2009, about 19 percent of the population in new york city lived in poverty. Along with this information, it was said that the median household income fell from $51,116 in 2008, to 50,033. Not only that but also the combined work of the city’s 58 richest residents at the time rose by $19 billion. Based on another census, the Gini coefficient, which is a statistical measure of the degree of variation or inequality represented in a set of values, used especially in analyzing income inequality, for household income in New York City went

Income inequality is assessed by using “Gini coefficient” (Gini, 1909) and it is one of the commonly used measurement tools across the globe. The Gini coefficient is normally explained by using Lorenz curve where the income of individuals are arranged from the lowest income level to the highest income level (Lorenz, 1905). A Gini coefficient with zero means perfect equality, whistle one or 100 percent means maximum inequality (Rogerson, 2013) . Based on income inequality measurement tool; Gini coefficient, Wilkins (2014a) suggests that there was a decline in Gini coefficient between 1994 -1995 and 1996-1997 by showing an inequality in Australian household income. On the other hand, between 2003-2004 and 2007-2008, the Gini coefficient increased

In Income Inequality: Too Big to Ignore, Robert H. Frank paints a picture to the reader about the struggles of pier pressure. For example: an upper-classmen chooses to buy a big house and fancy clothing. This acts as a “frame of reference” to the changes and norms of the society. If he spends money on something nice, a middle-classmen will then go and decide to do the same thing, and then a lower-classmen…all the way down the social hierarchy. This is what he calls an “expenditure cascade.” Robert relates this with a person’s downfalls, which can be traced due to lower income inequality. Income inequality basically means that in a given quantity, the dispersion of income is underlined by the gap between individuals and or households with

The issue of income inequality in the United States is complicated and does not have a definite answer. Income inequality can be measured in a few different ways. The first measurement for the income inequality in a country is to look at the percentages on households and group them into income categories, called distribution by income category. The second measurement for income inequality is called distribution by quintiles or fifths. This is when you divide the total number of people, households, families into five groups called quintiles to examine the percentage of total before tax income received by each quintile. Each quintile would then be ordered by income and households in the category.

First we must define what exactly income inequality really is and that is according to Definition of ‘Income Inequality’ (2015) said to be unequal income distributed to household or individual across the various participants in an economy. Income inequality is often presented as the percentage of income to a percentage of population. For example,

Amongst all of the presidential candidates of the 2016 race, one in particular stands above the rest. Bernie Sanders, running as a democrat, holds the highest capability to better the nation amongst all other candidates.

In any given population, there is a difference between what people within the population earn. The uneven distribution of income in any given population is income inequality. In order for there to be income, there has to be several sources of income. These sources of income may be combinational or independent per person receiving the income. Income may result from wages, rent, bank account interests, salaries or even profits made in business transactions ( Stiglitz, 2012).

The income inequality amount all Americans is growing greater amount of stress on the everyday people. For instance, older populations are living longer which means they require medical attention more often because they’re getting weaker and venerable to the world. The ACA was passed to help all American receive coverage yet, problems like this still happen. Robyn Stone talks about how Medicare would have much benefit if they did communities housing for older families, keeping in mind the idea is that they should be able to live where they want too. Diane Rowland contradicts Stone by imploring her idea that states should close the Medicaid’s gap to give medical help for everyone and their need.

This imbalance has not been seen since before 1917 and during the Great Depression, when inequality peaked. Additionally, income inequality is on a continued trend towards a further disproportion. Evidenced by the Gini Index, a “standard economic measure of income inequality” (7) where a score of 0.0 on shows a perfect equality in income distribution and a score of 1 means one person takes all of the income, the United States has one of the highest of income disparities of the 35 members countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (10), at 0.469 on the Gini index (8). The UN indicates that a coefficient of 0.4 and above is a predictor for social unrest and above 0.5 indicates a severe gap between the wealthiest class and the working

Gini coefficient, as a dependent variable, is used to measure income inequality for grouped household income. It is calculated across the grouped sixteen using census data for 1989, 1999,

Income inequality has been a major concern around the world, and it mainly links to how economic metrics are distributed among individuals in a country. Economists generally categorise these metrics in wealth, income and consumption. Wilkinson and Picket (2009) showed in their studies that inequality has drawbacks that lead to social problems. This is because income inequality and wealth concentration can hinder or delay long term growth. In 2011, International Monetary Fund economists showed that less income inequality increased the duration of countries’ economic growth spells more than free trade, low government corruption, foreign investment or low foreign debt (Berg and Ostry, 2011).

Income inequality has been a major issue in American history. There are many different factors that contribute to inequality. These include education, wealth, discrimination, ability, and monopoly power.

The most widely used aggregated measure of dispersion is Gini Coefficient which represents the wealth distribution of a nation's residents. This method measures inequality within scores between 0 and 1, where the higher score indicates inequality. HILDA survey data show that Australia’s Gini coefficient was 0.303 in 2000-01 and 0.296 in 2014-15. Although the Gini coefficient identified Australia's overall household income inequality has barely changed, the ABS has identified that wealth distribution of Australia’s residents still indicates a difference in social classes. The ABS also identified the labour market has become more socially unequal through a sample.

In 1950’s decades, the prevailing view was that the propensity to save of the rich is more than the poor. Thus the higher income inequality leads to higher savings, hence leads to increase the rate of investment and growth (see Kaldor (1957), Kuznets (1955)). More recently, Tabellini and Persson(1994) argue that inequality hurts growth through the median voter who enacts redistributive taxes. By contrast, St. Paul and Verdier (1993) show that redistributive taxes can boost growth if they are transferred to education or public goods. Another study presented by Barro (2000) assesses the relationship between Income Inequality and growth in a panel by using annual data set from 1965-1995. He studies the interaction of the Gini index and the initial

In the UK wealth inequality has risen since 2000, as the gap in wealth per adult between the lower segment and rest of the population has increased.