IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/clh/commun/v4y2012i1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Some Observations on the Concept and Measurement of Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen R. Richardson

    (The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary)

Abstract

Income inequality and redistribution have become popular subjects in both public and policy circles in the wake of concerns over apparent concentration of wealth. However, a reasonable discussion of this subject is often hampered by a lack of a clear conceptual framework and relevant facts. First, income inequality is a relative concept that can only be measured relatively by statistical tools like the Gini coefficient; used alone, these do not provide context for the results. Second, there is no single agreed-upon goal for income redistribution; different approaches invariably involve value judgments based on ethical or political theories that can differ widely on the crucial questions of why and how much redistribution should be sought. Third, the importance of this issue requires that measurements of the scale and absolute amount of existing income redistribution be utilized to inform the discussion. This communiqué takes a sober look at facts relating to income inequality and redistribution in Canada and applies methodology to reveal that, while the scale of income redistribution has declined since 1994, growth in real income since then has done much to compensate in maintaining levels of absolute income redistribution that are high by historical standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen R. Richardson, 2012. "Some Observations on the Concept and Measurement of Income Inequality," SPP Communique, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 4(1), February.
  • Handle: RePEc:clh:commun:v:4:y:2012:i:1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/richardson-comm2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:clh:commun:v:4:y:2012:i:1. 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: Bev Dahlby (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/spcalca.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.