ABSTRACT
By contrast to poverty, inequality is not measured relative to an arbitrary threshold: it does not require specification of a poverty line. By analogy with the poverty profile, a graphic representation of inequality is given by the Lorenz curve. If income were perfectly equally distributed among members of the population, the Lorenz curve would be the 45º line. The Gini coefficient cannot be decomposed additively by population subgroups. Using a century of data for the period 1917 to 2014, Alvaredo show that inequality over time in many countries, both industrialized and developing, followed a U-shape, a pattern inverse to the Kuznets inverted-U curve. The measure of inequality they use is the income share of the top 1 percent or 10 percent in the distribution of income. Growth will be defined to be pro-poor if the poor participate in the aggregate welfare increase generated by growth.
