On a class of bi-polarization variance-based measurement: Evidence from Cameroonian data.

This paper revisits one of the bipolarization indices of the large class of Duclos-Estebane-Ray polarization measures. The relationship between polarization, inequality and poverty is analyzed via the index. First, polarization measure for the median is defined and related to the subtraction of the between group and the within-groups components of the coefficient of variation squared. Second, the generalized bipolarization measure is defined and related to poverty via the headcount ratio, the income gap ratio and the overabundance gap ratio. In particular, it is shown that polarization is high when the headcount ratio is around 0.5 and polarization is little when the headcount ratio is far from this value. Third, the preceding results are applied to analyze the Cameroonian household’s consumption distribution.