On the automatic application of inequality indexes in the analysis of the international distribution of environmental indicators

In recent years traditional inequality measures have been used to quite a considerable extent to examine the international distribution of environmental indicators. One of the main characteristics of these measures is that each one assigns different weights to the changes that occur in the different sections of the variable distribution and, consequently, the results they yield can potentially be very different. Hence, we suggest the appropriateness of using a range of well-recommended measures to achieve more robust results. We also provide an empirical test for the comparative behaviour of several suitable inequality measures and environmental indicators in the international context. Our findings support the hypothesis that in some cases there are differences among measures in both the sign of the evolution over time and its size. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.