Thinking about inequality

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Figures......Page 10
Tables......Page 12
Preface......Page 15
1.1 A look at inequality analysis......Page 17
1.2 A second look......Page 19
1.3 A guide to the book......Page 22
Notes......Page 23
2.1 The axiomatic approach......Page 24
2.2 Inequality rankings and orderings......Page 25
2.3 The transfer principle......Page 27
2.4 Income and population......Page 28
2.5 Decomposability......Page 31
Notes......Page 33
3.1 What are we investigating?......Page 34
Theoretical base......Page 37
Control......Page 38
Imprecision......Page 39
3.4 A new approach......Page 40
3.5 Implementing the approach......Page 43
Translation of questionnaires......Page 45
Notes......Page 46
4.1 Drawing an inequality map......Page 47
4.2 An introduction to the questionnaires......Page 48
4.3 Inequality and changes in income and population......Page 51
4.4 Transfers and the structure of inequality comparisons......Page 54
4.5 Do the answers make sense?......Page 58
4.6 More on the transfer principle......Page 61
Notes......Page 64
5.1 What is welfare?......Page 65
5.2 Social welfare......Page 66
Anonymity......Page 67
Monotonicity, dominance and the Pareto principle......Page 69
Relationship to inequality......Page 71
5.3 Empirical results......Page 73
Anonymity......Page 74
The transfer principle......Page 76
Decomposability......Page 78
Additions to incomes......Page 79
5.4 Summary: welfare judgments and inequality comparisons......Page 82
Notes......Page 83
6.1 Introduction: comparing cakes......Page 85
6.2 Uniform enrichment......Page 87
6.3 The dependence hypothesis......Page 91
6.4 Unbalanced enrichment......Page 94
Fairness, comparability and income levels......Page 102
Inequality and growth......Page 103
Notes......Page 104
7.2 What does ‘poverty’ mean?......Page 105
Partitioning the population......Page 106
Using information about the distribution......Page 107
7.3 The poverty questionnaires......Page 110
7.4 Income distributions and poverty......Page 111
Monotonicity......Page 113
The transfer principle......Page 115
Anonymity......Page 116
Population replication......Page 117
The focus axiom......Page 118
New population members......Page 120
Poverty perceptions and the poverty line......Page 122
What happens if basic needs increase?......Page 123
What happens if basic needs and incomes increase?......Page 124
The definition of the poverty line......Page 126
7.5 Conclusions: the approach to poverty comparisons......Page 127
Notes......Page 129
8.1 Introduction......Page 130
8.2 A statistical approach......Page 132
The transfer principle......Page 133
Monotonicity......Page 135
The poverty line......Page 136
8.4 Direct and indirect approaches to inequality......Page 138
8.5 Does economics matter?......Page 139
Notes......Page 142
9.1 Second thoughts about second thoughts......Page 143
9.2 Applying inequality judgments......Page 144
9.3 Where next?......Page 146
9.4 A final word......Page 149
Notes......Page 150
A.1 The axiomatic approach......Page 152
A.2 Inequality and welfare rankings......Page 155
A.3 Poverty comparisons......Page 156
Notes......Page 157
Appendix B The questionnaires......Page 159
A1 INCOME INEQUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 162
A2 INCOME INEQUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 166
A3 INCOME INEQUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 169
A4 INCOME INEQUALITY QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 171
B1 INCOME DISTRIBUTION QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 173
B2 INCOME DISTRIBUTION QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 177
P1 Poverty Questionnaire......Page 180
P2 Poverty Questionnaire......Page 184
R3 INCOME RISK QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 187
References......Page 189
Index......Page 194