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ID: 086262

Inequality in military expenditures and the samuelson rule / Groot, Loek; Berg, Vincent Van Den

Groot, Loek	Journal Article
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2009.

Summary/Abstract

In this paper, we show that standard measures used in the income inequality literature, the Lorenz curve and the associated Gini-index, can successfully be applied to the distribution of defence spending across countries. Secondly, we use the Samuelson rule to explain the distribution of military expenditures across countries over time. According to the constant defence burden interpretation of the Samuelson rule, corresponding to the diagonal in the Lorenz diagram, the defence burdens should be equal across countries. It is shown that about three quarters of the variation in military expenditures can be explained by the Samuelson rule. We then go beyond the Samuelson rule to see which countries spend much more or less than predicted and investigate which other factors may influence the defence burden.

Key Words

Economics ; Military Expenditure ; Public goods ; Defence Burden ; Samuelson Rule ; Lorenz Curve

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ID: 089556

New ordered family of Lorenz curves with an application to meas / Wang, Zuxiang; Smyth, Russell; NG, Yew-Kwang

Smyth, Russell	Journal Article
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Publication

2009.

Summary/Abstract

The most common data source on income distribution in China is grouped data. When income data is in grouped form, some acceptable Lorenz model is needed to approximate the underlying Lorenz curve. This paper presents a new family of Lorenz curves and applies the main model in our proposed family of Lorenz curves to income data for rural China over the period 1980 to 2006. We find that the income share of the rural population at the low end of the income scale has been shrinking, income inequality in rural China has increased over time and that income inequality has impeded attempts to reduce poverty. However, the welfare of the rural population is still improving in terms of the generalized Lorenz dominance criterion.

Key Words

Poverty ; China ; Income ; Lorenz Curve ; Gini Index

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