Abstract
The article focuses on the comparison of regional inequality indices between different economic systems. We have shown that the common measures of regional inequality are not independent of the specifics of considered spatial system such as size, number and size of its regions, and overall population variability. In order to control for the effects of these parameters, we have attempted to isolate the stochastic (or spatially contingent) component of regional inequality using the method of a repetitive random spatial resampling. Using the Theil coefficient and its decomposition, the standardized (adjusted) measures of regional inequality have been obtained by confronting observed (unadjusted) figures with what they would be were the considered characteristic randomly spatially distributed within the map of a given system. As an example showing the importance of the proposed standardization procedure, we have compared regional inequality in the unemployment rate among Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, and Austria.
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Abbreviations
- T::
-
overall Theil coefficient of inequality;
- T B ::
-
between-region component of Theil inequality;
- T W ::
-
within-region component of Theil inequality;
- n::
-
population size (number of sub-regional units);
- y::
-
variable under analysis;
- i::
-
index for individuals;
- j::
-
index for regions;
- k::
-
number of regions;
- r::
-
size of average region;
- σ::
-
population variability
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Novotný, J., Nosek, V. Comparison of regional inequality in unemployment among four Central European countries: an inferential approach. Lett Spat Resour Sci 5, 95–101 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-011-0071-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-011-0071-y