World Bank tables provide GNP data, quintile shares, and a PPP adjustment factor for most countries. It is possible to
analyze such data in such a way as to construct an implied Gini coefficent and an implied poverty rate. Quintile income
distribution data can be converted to a Lorenz distribution of income immediately; the Gini coefficient can then be computed
directly. More intriguingly, we can convert the average income and the quintile distribution information into an implied linear
income distribution. Figure 0.0 provides an illustration of these approaches. Figure 0.1 provides panel data for India. Figure
0.2 offers the Lorenz distribution that corresponds to this data. And figure 0.3 provides a linear income distribution
corresponding to these data, along with a poverty budget line (US$760), which allows us to estimate the proportion of the
Indian population that falls below the poverty line.
| Income and distribution | |
| India | |
| 1987 | |
| GNP per capita | $300 |
| PPP adjusted | $793 |
| Q1 | 8.8% |
| Q2 | 12.5% |
| Q3 | 16.2% |
| Q4 | 21.3% |
| D9 | 14.2% |
| D10 | 27.1% |
| implied GINI | 0.307 |
| Implied poverty rate | 60.3% |
| average PPP adjusted income to poorest 40% | $422 |
| poverty budget | $760 |
figure 0.1. Income and distribution
source: WDR 1995, table 30
figure 0.2. Lorenz distribution India
figure 0.3. Income distribution India
Figure 0.4 provides the lower end of the income distribution curves for some 14 countries, presented in the same way as the case of India illustrates.
