The World Bank’s New Inequality Indicator
The World Bank recently introduced a new key indicator to guide its work: the number of countries with high inequality, defined as a Gini index above 40. The new indicator was introduced as part of the new World Bank vision of ending poverty on a livable planet. This paper reviews why reducing inequality matters for ending poverty on a livable planet, summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of using the Gini index to track inequality, outlines challenges in measuring inequality, and discusses what a Gini threshold of 40 implies. Using the most recent data for every country, 52 countries of a total of 169 countries are classified as high inequality countries, which represents a decline from 74 countries at the beginning of the millennium.
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2024-06-11
|
Subjects: | INEQUALITY, GINI COEFFICIENT, NO POVERTY, SDG 1, REDUCED INEQUALITIES, SDG 10, WELFARE MEASUREMENT, |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099549506102441825/IDU1bd155bac16d78143af188331f87564a9d6c8 https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41687 |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Summary: | The World Bank recently introduced a
new key indicator to guide its work: the number of countries
with high inequality, defined as a Gini index above 40. The
new indicator was introduced as part of the new World Bank
vision of ending poverty on a livable planet. This paper
reviews why reducing inequality matters for ending poverty
on a livable planet, summarizes the advantages and
disadvantages of using the Gini index to track inequality,
outlines challenges in measuring inequality, and discusses
what a Gini threshold of 40 implies. Using the most recent
data for every country, 52 countries of a total of 169
countries are classified as high inequality countries, which
represents a decline from 74 countries at the beginning of
the millennium. |
---|