Statistical inference for testing gini coefficients: an application for Colombia

This paper uses Colombian household survey data collected over the period 1984-2005 to estimate Gini coeficients along with their corresponding standard errors. We …find a statistically signi…cant increase in wage income inequality following the adoption of the liberalisation measures of the early 1990s, and mixed evidence during the recovery years that followed the economic recession of the late 1990s. We also …nd that in several cases the observed diferences in the Gini coeficients across cities have not been statistically signi…cant.