Inequality and polarization of per capita GDP in Colombia

The concept and measurement of the distribution polarization have appealed the economists' attention in the past few years. Independently, Esteban-Ray and Wolfson have conceptualized the polarization notion and proposed the indices for its measurement. Similarly, Lasso de la Vega developed an extension to the indicator proposed by Esteban-Ray. Polarization indices are intended to estimate, given an income distribution, how much the population is grouped around a number of poles. This notion is linked to the concept of inequality and arises out of the traditional inequality measurements inability to properly distinguish between convergence to a global average or grouping around local averages. This suite of indicators is used on an application developed for the case of the Colombian departments in the 1984-2004 period based on the GDP data published by the Departamento Nacional de Estadistica (Colombian statistics agency, DANE). The conclusion is that the cross-region inequality in Colombia has been accompanied by a polarization reduction.