Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for a New Inequality Measure

Recently Zenga (2007) introduced a new inequality measure based on ratios between lower and upper group means. extbf{Both Zenga's new measure and Gini's index may be interpreted in terms of areas beneath inequality curves. }In this extbf{work }the performance of asymptotic confidence intervals for Gini's measure and for the new measure is tested. Several types of confidence intervals are considered: the normal, the percentile, the BCa and the $t$-bootstrap. While the underlying asymptotic theory for Gini's measure is well established, formal proofs for Zenga's index are extbf{currently being explored and developed}. Indeed, also in view of our simulation results, asymptotic properties similar to those of Gini's index can be expected to hold also for Zenga's new inequality measure.