Lorenz Cruve: A Comparative Analysis

In order to evaluate the Gini coefficient we first have to explain what the Lorenz Cruve is. The Lorenz curve plots the cumulative percentages of total income against the cumulative number of citizens, starting with the poorest individual. Then the Gini index measures the area between the Lorenz curve and a hypothetical line of absolute equality. Thus a index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 1 implies perfect inequality.

"The Gini coefficient provides an index to measure inequality," says Antonio Cabrales, a professor of economics at University College London.

This map can help us to understand how the level of inequality differ in the world.

The Gini coefficient has risen a lot in some rich countries since the 1980s. But this was not universal.

In fact for many years, Latin America had

But why? Putin has always been well aware of the problem and this is why in 2012 he announced that he wanted the middle class to grow in order to reduce the material inequality which effected the country. However the numbers were still very worrying last year, as it is true that 111 people control 19% of all households wealth in Russia as the Credit Suisse wrote in their annual report (2014).

Another factor which effects Russia’s income inequality is the high level of corruption: 90% of entrepreneurs say they have experienced corruption in some ways at least once in their careers. Even if it is difficult to put a price tag on the economic cost of corruption, it was estimated, by the INDEM Fundation, a Moscow-based think tank focused on anti-corruption, that the practice costs the nation’s economy between $300 billion and $500 billion each year, which is roughly a third of Russia’s economy.

This graph show perfectly how much corruption is actually perceived in