IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/ubzefd/341642.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The merger of populations as a revision of comparison space: Repercussions for social stress and income inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Stark, Oded
  • Budzinski, Wiktor

Abstract

The merger of populations expands the comparison space of incomes. As a result, measures of the income-based social stress and of the income inequality of the constituent populations need to be replaced by new measures. To this end, we develop a procedure for calculating the aggregate social stress and the Gini coefficient of the merged population. We show that to calculate the aggregate social stress when the income distributions of the constituent populations do not overlap, it is sufficient to utilize just three characteristics of the constituent populations: their size, the levels of their aggregate income-based social stress, and their mean income. This result carries over to the calculation of the Gini coefficient of the merged population. We also analyze the extent to which the procedure, applied to cases where the constituent populations do not overlap, can be extended to cases where the income distributions of the constituent populations overlap.

Suggested Citation

  • Stark, Oded & Budzinski, Wiktor, 2024. "The merger of populations as a revision of comparison space: Repercussions for social stress and income inequality," Discussion Papers 341642, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ubzefd:341642
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.341642
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/341642/files/343_The%20merger%20of%20populations%20as%20a%20revision%20of%20comparison%20space.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.341642?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stark, Oded & Bielawski, Jakub & Falniowski, Fryderyk, 2017. "A class of proximity-sensitive measures of relative deprivation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 105-110.
    2. Oded Stark, 2020. "Relative deprivation as a cause of risky behaviors," The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 138-146, July.
    3. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
    4. George A. Akerlof, 1997. "Social Distance and Social Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(5), pages 1005-1028, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stark, Oded, 2023. "On a tendency in health economics to dwell on income inequality and underestimate social stress," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    2. Stark, Oded & Kosiorowski, Grzegorz, 2024. "An optimal allocation of asylum seekers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 1-11.
    3. Stark, Oded, 2024. "The modification of social space as a tool for lowering social stress," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. Oded Stark & Wiktor Budzinski, 2021. "A social‐psychological reconstruction of Amartya Sen’s measures of inequality and social welfare," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(4), pages 552-566, November.
    5. Pritha Dev & Blessing U. Mberu & Roland Pongou, 2016. "Ethnic Inequality: Theory and Evidence from Formal Education in Nigeria," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(4), pages 603-660.
    6. Thaize Challier, M.-Christine, 2010. "Socio-political conflict, social distance, and rent extraction in historical perspective," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 51-67, March.
    7. Amany A. El Anshasy & Mrittika Shamsuddin & Marina-Selini Katsaiti, 2023. "Financial Wellbeing and International Migration Intentions: Evidence from Global Surveys," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(7), pages 2261-2289, October.
    8. Oded Stark & Grzegorz Kosiorowski, 2021. "Turning relative deprivation into a performance incentive device," The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 22-36, January.
    9. Walter Bossert & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Vito Peragine, 2007. "Deprivation and Social Exclusion," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 777-803, November.
    10. Dev, Pritha & Mberu, Blessing & Pongou, Roland, 2013. "Communitarianism, Oppositional Cultures, and Human Capital Contagion: Theory and Evidence from Formal versus Koranic Education," MPRA Paper 46234, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Apr 2013.
    11. Duclos, Jean-Yves, 1998. "Social evaluation functions, economic isolation and the Suits index of progressivity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 103-121, July.
    12. Tóth, István György, 2003. "Jövedelemegyenlőtlenségek - tényleg növekszenek, vagy csak úgy látjuk? [Inequalities of income: are they or do they just seem to be increasing?]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 209-234.
    13. Jaya Jumrani & P. S. Birthal, 2017. "Does consumption of tobacco and alcohol affect household food security? Evidence from rural India," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 255-279, April.
    14. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla, 2014. "The causal factors of international inequality in co2 emissions per capita: a regression-based inequality decomposition analysis," Working Papers 2014/20, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    15. Duclos, J.Y., 1995. "Economic Isolation, Inequality, and the Suits Index of Progressivity," Papers 9510, Laval - Recherche en Politique Economique.
    16. Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2006. "Empirics of the Identification of Social Interactions; An Evaluation of the Approaches and Their Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 193-228, April.
    17. Selod, Harris & Zenou, Yves, 2001. "Location and Education in South African Cities under and after Apartheid," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 168-198, January.
    18. Maria Rosaria Carillo, 2000. "The Effect of Professionalisation and the Demand for Social Status on the Adoption of New Technologies," Rivista italiana degli economisti, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 473-502.
    19. Gajdos, Thibault & Maurin, Eric, 2004. "Unequal uncertainties and uncertain inequalities: an axiomatic approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 93-118, May.
    20. Zhenlin Yang, 2006. "On Joint Modelling and Testing for Local and Global Spatial Externalities," Development Economics Working Papers 22487, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Economics and Policy; Public Economics;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

    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:ags:ubzefd:341642. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zefbnde.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.