Abstract
The scope of this paper is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Gini index by providing the original formulae. Corrado
Gini introduced his index for the first time in a 1912 book published in Italian under the name of “Variabilità e Mutabilità”
(Variability and Mutability). This article provides selected extracts of Part I of the book dedicated to measures of variability.
We find that Gini proposed no less than 13 formulations of his index, none of which is known today to the large public. We
also find that Gini anticipated some of the developments that derived from the study of his index.
Gini introduced his index for the first time in a 1912 book published in Italian under the name of “Variabilità e Mutabilità”
(Variability and Mutability). This article provides selected extracts of Part I of the book dedicated to measures of variability.
We find that Gini proposed no less than 13 formulations of his index, none of which is known today to the large public. We
also find that Gini anticipated some of the developments that derived from the study of his index.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-23
- DOI 10.1007/s10888-011-9188-x
- Authors
- Lidia Ceriani, Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy
- Paolo Verme, The World Bank, Washington, DC, USA
- Journal Journal of Economic Inequality
- Online ISSN 1573-8701
- Print ISSN 1569-1721