THE International competitiveness of European Union COUNTRIES and strategies FOR ITS enhancEMENT: A Taxonomic analysis

Income distributions can be described by measures of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, kurtosis or by indexes of polarization. In numerous studies, Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve have been used to investigate inequality of incomes. Income distributions can also be analysed in comparison to one another. In the article two measures belonging to Csiszár's divergence class have been used to identify the degree of differentiation of income distributions among the EU countries in 2005 and 2012. Similar and dissimilar countries with respect to distribution of income have been identified and the change of divergence of EU countries income distributions between 2005 and 2012 has been assessed. European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) dataset has been used.