On the Measurement of Inequality
TL;DR: In this paper, the problem of comparing two frequency distributions f(u) of an attribute y which for convenience I shall refer to as income is defined as a risk in the theory of decision-making under uncertainty.
About: This article is published in Journal of Economic Theory.The article was published on 1970-09-01. It has received 5002 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Income inequality metrics & Income distribution.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, a new class of pro-poorness measures is defined, to complement existing classes, with similarities and differences which are fully discussed, and all of these measures can be decomposed across income sources or components of consumption expenditure (depending on the application).
Abstract: Recent economic literature on pro-poor growth measurement is drawn together, using a common analytical framework which lends itself to some significant extensions. First, a new class of pro-poorness measures is defined, to complement existing classes, with similarities and differences which are fully discussed. Second, all of these measures of pro-poorness can be decomposed across income sources or components of consumption expenditure (depending on the application). This permits the analyst to “unbundle” a pattern of growth, revealing the contributions to overall pro-poorness of constituent parts. Third, all of these pro-poorness measures can be modified to measure pro-poorness at percentiles. An application to consumption expenditures in Indonesia in the 1990s reveals that the poverty reduction achieved remains far below what would have been achieved under distributional neutrality. This can be tracked back to changes in expenditure components.
60 citations
TL;DR: This article examined changes in the distribution of family income and family consumption during the period 1978 to 1992, and found that both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality moved countercyclically.
Abstract: This paper uses Canadian cross-sectional income and expenditure data to examine changes in the distribution of family income and family consumption during the period 1978 to 1992. Family consumption data are analyzed because in the presence of intertemporal consumption smoothing, the cross-sectional distribution of consumption may characterize the distribution of lifetime wealth. The author finds that both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality moved countercyclically. In addition, both Canadian family income inequality and Canadian family consumption inequality trended upward over the period; however, the change in family consumption inequality was much smaller than the change in family income inequality, suggesting that inequality in the distribution of lifetime wealth may have changed much less than is suggested by changes in the distribution of income. Copyright 1998 by The International Association for Research in Income and Wealth.
60 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigates a solution concept of the conditional median which is a generalization of the k-centrum concept taking into account the portion of demand related to the largest distances, and shows that it may be modeled with a number of simple linear inequalities.
Abstract: Classical approaches to location problems are based on the minimization of the average distance (the median concept) or the minimization of the maximum distance (the center concept) to the service facilities The median solution concept is primarily concerned with the spatial efficiency while the center concept is focused on the spatial equity The k-centrum model unifies both the concepts by minimization of the sum of the k largest distances In this paper we investigate a solution concept of the conditional median which is a generalization of the k-centrum concept taking into account the portion of demand related to the largest distances Namely, for a specified portion (quantile) of demand we take into account the entire group of the corresponding largest distances and we minimize their average It is shown that such an objective, similar to the standard minimax, may be modeled with a number of simple linear inequalities Equitable properties of the solution concept are examined
60 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: Income inequality and poverty : do the Nordic countries still constitute a family of their own? as mentioned in this paper investigates whether Nordic countries are still part of the family of the USA and the UK.
Abstract: Income inequality and poverty : do the Nordic countries still constitute a family of their own?
60 citations
Additional excerpts
...Because the Gini coefficient is more sensitive to differences in the middle of the income distribution (eg 6 Atkinson, 1970), we sometimes supplement it with measures better suited for capturing change and differences in the bottom and top of the income distribution, such as the relation between…...
[...]
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, a measure of risk aversion in the small, the risk premium or insurance premium for an arbitrary risk, and a natural concept of decreasing risk aversion are discussed and related to one another.
Abstract: This paper concerns utility functions for money. A measure of risk aversion in the small, the risk premium or insurance premium for an arbitrary risk, and a natural concept of decreasing risk aversion are discussed and related to one another. Risks are also considered as a proportion of total assets.
5,207 citations
Posted Content•
1,748 citations
"On the Measurement of Inequality" refers background in this paper
...3 See Rothschild and Stiglitz [13], Hadar and Russell [ 5 ], and Hanoch and Levy [6]....
[...]
1,738 citations
"On the Measurement of Inequality" refers methods in this paper
...Then by applying the results of Pratt [l 11, Arrow [ 2 ], and others, we can see that this requirement (which may be referred to as constant (relative) inequality-aversion) implies that U(y) has the form...
[...]
TL;DR: JSTOR as discussed by the authors is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship, which is used to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources.
Abstract: you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
1,544 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of the first step of the decision-making process of an individual decision maker among alternative risky ventures is presented, in terms of a single dimension such as money, both for the utility functions and for the probability distributions.
Abstract: Publisher Summary The choice of an individual decision maker among alternative risky ventures may be regarded as a two-step procedure. The decision maker chooses an efficient set among all available portfolios, independently of his tastes or preferences. Then, the decision maker applies individual preferences to this set to choose the desired portfolio. The subject of this chapter is the analysis of the first step. It deals with optimal selection rules that minimize the efficient set by discarding any portfolio that is inefficient in the sense that it is inferior to a member of the efficient set, from point of view of each and every individual, when all individuals' utility functions are assumed to be of a given general class of admissible functions. The analysis presented in the chapter is carried out in terms of a single dimension such as money, both for the utility functions and for the probability distributions. However, the results may easily be extended, with minor changes in the theorems and the proofs, to the multivariate case. The chapter explains a necessary and sufficient condition for efficiency, when no further restrictions are imposed on the utility functions. It presents proofs of the optimal efficiency criterion in the presence of general risk aversion, that is, for concave utility functions.
1,160 citations