On the Issue of Weighting in Interregional Studies (in Response to K.P. Gluschenko)

Abstract

This is a response to the article by K. P. Gluschenko in the journal «Spatial Economics» (2015, No. 4), where the author criticized the weighting in interregional studies, and the interregional inequality studies in particular. Examining in detail the arguments of the reviewed author, this paper shows that both approaches (weighted and unweighted) have a right to exist and are aimed at different research problems. The unweighted approach is used for estimating interregional inequality and its degree (severity), while the weighted approach reveals the extent of the problem and the income distribution disparity relative to the interregional distribution of some other parameter’s (e.g., population) values. The article describes a number of basic and additional arguments of weighting in interregional studies: it is necessary in assessing the extent of income redistribution, carrying out the decomposition of the disparity indicators and in determining the relationship between the disparity and the population dynamics and various spillover effects. The article is based on an expansive sample of both foreign and domestic literature focusing on different aspects of interregional inequality

Keywords

• region
• income
• population
• inequality
• interregional inequality
• Gini index
• Hoover index
• Theil index
• coefficient of variation