Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distributions

被引:0
作者
Shorrocks A. [1 ]
机构
[1] World Institute for Development Economics Research, UNU-WIDER, Helsinki
基金
英国经济与社会研究理事会;
关键词
Income distributions; Inequality; Living standards; Needs;
D O I
10.1007/s10888-004-3459-8
中图分类号
学科分类号
摘要
This paper establishes the principles that should govern the welfare and inequality analysis of heterogeneous income distributions. Two basic criteria - The 'equity preference' condition and the 'compensation principle' - Are shown to be fundamentally incompatible. The paper favours the latter, thereby vindicating the traditional method of dealing with heterogeneous samples. However, inequality and welfare comparisons will usually be well defined only if equivalent incomes are obtained using constant scale factors; and researchers will need to distinguish clearly between inequality of nominal incomes and inequality of living standards. Furthermore, household observations must always be weighted according to family size. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
引用
收藏
页码:193 / 218
页数:25
相关论文
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