cd {lawstat}

Coefficient of Dispersion – a Measure of Relative Variability

Description

Measure of relative inequality (or relative variation) of the data. Coefficient of dispersion (CD) is the ratio of the mean absolute deviation from the median (MAAD) to the median of the data. NAs from the data are omitted. See Gastwirth (1988) and Bonett and Seier (2006).

Usage

cd(x)

Arguments

x

a numeric vector of data values.

Value

The coefficient of dispersion.

Author(s)

Wallace Hui, Yulia R. Gel, Joseph L. Gastwirth, Weiwen Miao

References

Bonett DG, Seier E (2006). “Confidence interval for a coefficient of dispersion in nonnormal distributions.” Biometrical Journal, 48(1), 144–148. doi:10.1002/bimj.200410148.

Gastwirth JL (1988). Statistical Reasoning in Law and Public Policy: Statistical Concepts and Issues of Fairness, volume 1. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.

See Also

gini.index, j.maad

Examples

## The Baker v. Carr Case: one-person-one-vote decision. 
## Measure of Relative Inequality of Population data in 33 districts 
## of the Tennessee Legislature in 1900 and 1972. See 
## popdata (see Gastwirth, 1988).

data(popdata)
cd(popdata[,"pop1900"])
cd(popdata[,"pop1972"])