Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to estimate the preferences of the Italian society towards equity in order to verify whether preferences i) have changed across the years, and ii) can be related to specific sociodemographic characteristics. Introducing equity concerns in the implementation of economic policies is a fundamental problem faced by both economists and policy makers. This paper uses a social welfare function a la Jorgenson and Slesnick to estimate society’s aversion towards inequality by implementing a voting scheme for compiling individuals’ equity preferences into a social choice by majority rule. The results show that preferences are highly polarized toward a low and a high concern for equity aversion and that this concern is significantly related with several sociodemographic characteristics. Among them, income plays an important role with richer people that tend to favor less equity. Results also show that preferences towards equity have changed across the years.Download Info
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Paper provided by CHILD - Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic economics - ITALY in its series CHILD Working Papers with number wp03_03.Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Nov 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpc:wplist:wp03_03
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Keywords: inequity; equity; welfare; social function;Other versions of this item:
- Vincenzo Atella & Jay Coggins & Federico Perali, 2004. "Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants," Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 117-144, August.
- Vincenzo Atella & Jay Coggins & Federico Perali, 2005. "Aversion to inequality in Italy and its determinants," Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 117-144, January.
- Vincenzo Atella & Jay S. Coggins & Federico Perali, 2004. "Aversion to Inequality in Italy and its Determinants," CEIS Research Paper 56, Tor Vergata University, CEIS.
- C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
- D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
- J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- BARGAIN Olivier & DOLLS Mathias & NEUMANN Dirk & PEICHL Andreas & SIEGLOCH Sebastian, 2011.
"Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency,"
CEPS/INSTEAD Working Paper Series
2011-11, CEPS/INSTEAD.
- Bargain, Olivier & Dolls, Mathias & Neumann, Dirk & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," IZA Discussion Papers 5440, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Olivier Bargain & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Sebastian Siegloch & Andreas Peichl, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," Working Papers 201101, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
- Olivier Bargain & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," Working Papers 201102, School Of Economics, University College Dublin.
- Bargain, Olivier & Dolls, Mathias & Neumann, Dirk & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," EUROMOD Working Papers EM2/11, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
- Olivier Bargain & Mathias Dolls & Dirk Neumann & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2011. "Tax-Benefit Systems in Europe and the US: Between Equity and Efficiency," CESifo Working Paper Series 3534, CESifo Group Munich.
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