Egghe's construction of Lorenz curves resolved

Abstract

In a recent article (Burrell, 2006), the author pointed out that the version of Lorenz concentration theory presented by Egghe (2005a, 2005b) does not conform to the classical statistical/econometric approach. Rousseau (2007) asserts confusion on our part and a failure to grasp Egghe's construction, even though we simply reported what Egghe stated. Here the author shows that Egghe's construction rather than “including the standard case,” as claimed by Rousseau, actually leads to the Leimkuhler curve of the dual function, in the sense of Egghe. (Note that here we distinguish between the Lorenz curve, a convex form arising from ranking from smallest to largest, and the Leimkuhler curve, a concave form arising from ranking from largest to smallest. The two presentations are equivalent. See Burrell, 1991, 2005; Rousseau, 2007.)