This paper examines the normative properties of an empirically implementable dominance criterion for comparing alternative distributions of two attributes, one of which being cardinally measurable, between an arbitrary number of individuals. The criterion, which generalizes the one proposed by Bourguignon (1989), states that distribution A dominates distribution B when poverty in the cardinally measurable attribute, as measured by the poverty gap, is no greater in A than in B for all poverty lines that are weakly decreasing with respect to the other attribute. The criterion is shown to be equivalent to the ranking of distributions of two attributes that would be aggreed upon by all utility-inequality averse welfarist social planners who assume that households convert attributes into well-being by the same increasing utility function satisfying the property that the marginal utility of the cardinally measurable attribute is decreasing with respect to the two attributes. This paper also identifies the elementary equalizing transformations that correspond to this criterion.
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Paper provided by Institut d'economie publique (IDEP), Marseille, France in its series IDEP Working Papers with number
0605.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Shorrocks, Anthony F, 1983.
"Ranking Income Distributions,"
Economica,
London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 50(197), pages 3-17, February.
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