Factor Components, Population Subgroups and the Computation of the Gini Index of Inequality.

A simple technique based on matrix algebra is proposed to compute the Gini Index of Inequality; to obtain its decomposition by factor components when detailed data on income sources are available; to derive a breakdown of the inequality into, within, and between classes inequality when the income units are grouped by income range; and to compute the contribution of the within and between groups inequality, as well as that of some interaction term, when the data are classified by population subgroups. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.