ABSTRACT
In this essay, I advance a measure of inequality which is very similar to the Bonferroni (1930) index, and also shares commonalities with the well-known Gini (1912) coefficient of inequality, and an attempt is made in the essay to flag the relevant links. The measure is derived, very simply, as a distance function, and since the specific distance function employed in the cause is the so-called Canberra function,1 the resulting index is called the ‘Canberra inequality measure’. Some features of the measure are discussed with specific reference to the properties of decomposability and transfer-sensitivity. Also discussed is a graphical representation of inequality, analogous to the Lorenz and Bonferroni curves, which is here called the Canberra curve, from which the Canberra measure can be derived, just as the Gini coefficient can be derived from the Lorenz curve and the Bonferroni index from the Bonferroni curve.2
