euro-optics-plasma-science-2018-posters

Laser Optics & Photonics and Atomic & Plasma Science 2018

J u l y 1 6 - 1 7 , 2 0 1 8

P r a g u e , C z e c h R e p u b l i c

Page 75

American Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

ISSN: 2349-3917

E u r o S c i C o n J o i n t E v e n t o n

Laser Optics & Photonics and

Atomic & Plasma Science

n this paper, I present a pair of new measures of economic inequality with the application of Snell’s law. The idea originates

when I envisage, with fantasy, that a society without economic inequality is nothing but a state or condition where light touches

everyone without refraction. The egalitarian line of the Lorenz curve framework, for measuring economic inequality, represents

such an ideal condition. In reality, however, it deviates or refracts from the ideal condition, as we live in a stratified society with

varying living conditions. Refractive index has origin in geometrical optics, where it measures bending of a ray of light passing

from one homogeneous transparent medium into another. As light refracts according to characteristics of different media, so

also Lorenz curve does according to concentration of wealth or income in different strata. Thanks to this analogy, first, I compute

refractive (inequality) index for each income group in a distribution to study inequality condition in each, and then simply add

all and standardise to propose an overall measure for the whole framework. I utilise data on quintile group shares of income

or consumption from the UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database - WIID 3.4, 2017 with 180 countries and 5604 cases.

Results are noteworthy. While a refractive index value of less than 1.00, in case of light, refers an ‘anomalous refraction’, such a

condition of economic inequality is found to be too common for many of us in reality. In contrast to that, in more than 31% of the

cases, the index value of the richest group lies above 2.00, where the same of 1.00 depicts an ideal condition that is enviable. With

many attractive properties, the summative overall measure appears to be pro transfer-sensitive and ornamental going far beyond

the most popular Gini coefficient, which is simply transfer-neutral.

Application of Snell’s law in the measurement of

economic inequality

Amlan Majumder

Dinhata College, India

Am J Compt Sci Inform Technol 2018, Volume 6

DOI: 10.21767/2349-3917-C1-003