A new measure of dissimilarity between distributions: Application to the analysis of income distributions convergence in the European Union

This study introduces a new measure of dissimilarity between distributions, related to Gini's mean difference, and applies it to analyse the convergence between personal income distributions within the 15 EU member states, during the period 1993-2000. According to this measure of dissimilarity, relationships of proximity between these distributions during that period of time constitute the basis of the analysis. Multidimensional scaling techniques are used to construct the temporal trajectories of such distributions in a factor space, optimally reduced for the analysis of their differences. Data are taken from the European Community Household Panel.