ABSTRACT
Economic inequality has long captured researchers’ interest, and the most widely used measure of inequality is the Gini index (or Gini inequality ratio) pioneered by the Italian statistician Corrado Gini (1912) and often presented together with its associated Lorenz curve, attributed to Lorenz (1905). The measure has become popular for measuring not only economic but other types of inequality as well in recent years, such as education and health inequality. As such the Gini index is an immensely useful measure. However, how much can the statistic really measure in terms of the shape and form of inequality, be it income, education, or health? This chapter sets out to answer the question.
