R: Atkinson Index - A Measure of Inequality.

Atkinson {DescTools} | R Documentation

## Atkinson Index - A Measure of Inequality.

### Description

The Atkinson index is an inequality measure and is useful in determining which end of the distribution contributed most to the observed inequality.

### Usage

    Atkinson(x, n = rep(1, length(x)), parameter = 0.5, na.rm = FALSE)

### Arguments

`x` | a vector containing at least non-negative elements.
`n` | a vector of frequencies, must be same length as x.
`parameter` | parameter of the inequality measure (if set to `NULL` the default parameter of the respective measure is used).
`na.rm` | logical. Should missing values be removed? Defaults to FALSE.

### Value

the value of the Akinson Index.

### Note

This function was previously published as `ineq()` in the ineq package and has been integrated here without logical changes, but with some extensions for `NA`-handling and the use of weights.

### Author(s)

Achim Zeileis <Achim.Zeileis@R-project.org>

### References

Cowell, F. A. (2000) Measurement of Inequality in Atkinson, A. B. / Bourguignon, F. (Eds): Handbook of Income Distribution. Amsterdam.

Cowell, F. A. (1995) Measuring Inequality Harvester Wheatshef: Prentice Hall.

Marshall, Olkin (1979) Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications. New York: Academic Press.

### See Also

See `Herfindahl`, `Rosenbluth` for concentration measures and `ineq()` in the package ineq for additional inequality measures

### Examples

    # generate vector (of incomes)
    x <- c(541, 1463, 2445, 3438, 4437, 5401, 6392, 8304, 11904, 22261)

    # compute Atkinson coefficient with parameter=0.5
    Atkinson(x, parameter=0.5)

[Package DescTools version 0.99.32 Index]