IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econom/v74y2007i293p97-111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unit‐Consistent Decomposable Inequality Measures

Author

Listed:
  • BUHONG ZHENG

Abstract

This paper introduces a new axiom—the unit consistency axiom—into inequality measurement. This new axiom requires the ordinal inequality rankings (rather than the cardinal indices) to be unaffected when incomes are expressed in different units. I argue that unit consistency is an indispensable axiom for the measurement of income inequality. When unit consistency is combined with decomposability, I show that the unit‐consistent decomposable class of inequality measures is a two‐parameter extension of the one‐parameter generalized entropy class. The extended class accommodates a variety of value judgments and includes different types of inequality measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Buhong Zheng, 2007. "Unit‐Consistent Decomposable Inequality Measures," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(293), pages 97-111, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:74:y:2007:i:293:p:97-111
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00524.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00524.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2006.00524.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:74:y:2007:i:293:p:97-111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.