IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/6595.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The subjective approach to the measurement of income inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Amiel, Yoram

Abstract

Inequality measurement involves explicit or implicit value judgements. The subjective approach to inequality measurement is a relatively new and fast-developing area which focueses direct attention on these judgements. It is 'subjective' in the sense that it takes accounts of peoples' views on distributional comparisons. This paper conveys some of the principal contributions of recent years.

Suggested Citation

  • Amiel, Yoram, 1998. "The subjective approach to the measurement of income inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6595, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:6595
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6595/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Buyze, Jeannine, 1982. "The estimation of welfare levels of a cardinal utility function," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 325-332.
    2. Bossert, Walter & Pfingsten, Andreas, 1990. "Intermediate inequality: concepts, indices, and welfare implications," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 117-134, April.
    3. Hagenaars, Aldi J M & van Praag, Bernard M S, 1985. "A Synthesis of Poverty Line Definitions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 31(2), pages 139-154, June.
    4. Kapteyn, Arie & Wansbeek, Tom, 1985. "The individual welfare function : A review," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 333-363, December.
    5. Atkinson, A B, 1987. "On the Measurement of Poverty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(4), pages 749-764, July.
    6. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. II," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 82-111, August.
    7. Aldi J. M. Hagenaars & Bernard M. S. van Praag, 1985. "A Synthesis Of Poverty Line Definitions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 31(2), pages 139-154, June.
    8. Cowell, F A, 1985. "'A Fair Suck of the Sauce Bottle' or What Do You Mean by Inequality?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 61(173), pages 567-579, June.
    9. Stanovnik, Tine, 1992. "Perception of poverty and income satisfaction : An empirical analysis of Slovene households," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 57-69, March.
    10. Diane Colasanto & Arie Kapteyn & Jacques van der Gaag, 1984. "Two Subjective Definitions of Poverty: Results from the Wisconsin Basic Needs Study," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(1), pages 127-138.
    11. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. I," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 416-442, June.
    12. Glejser, H. & Gevers, L. & Lambot, Ph. & Morales, J.A., 1977. "An econometric study of the variables determining inequalitty aversion among students," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 173-188.
    13. Tom Wansbeek & Arie Kapteyn, 1983. "Tackling Hard Questions by Means of Soft Methods: The Use of Individual Welfare Functions in Socio‐Economic Policy," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 249-269, May.
    14. Gevers, Louis & Glejser, Herbert & Rouyer, Jean, 1979. " Professed Inequality Aversion and Its Error Component," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 81(2), pages 238-243.
    15. Wansbeek, Tom & Kapteyn, Arie, 1983. "Tackling Hard Questions by Means of Soft Methods: The Use of Individual Welfare Functions in Socio-Economic Policy," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 249-269.
    16. de Vos, Klaas & Garner, Thesia I, 1991. "An Evaluation of Subjective Poverty Definitions: Comparing Results from the U.S. and the Netherlands," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(3), pages 267-285, September.
    17. Van Praag, Bernard M.S., 1977. "The perception of welfare inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 189-207.
    18. Van Praag, Bernard, 1971. "The welfare function of income in Belgium: An empirical investigation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 337-369.
    19. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
    20. Kapteyn, Arie & Wansbeek, Tom, 1985. "The individual welfare function : A rejoinder," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 375-381, December.
    21. Amiel, Yoram & Cowell, Frank A., 1992. "Measurement of income inequality : Experimental test by questionnaire," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 3-26, February.
    22. van Praag, Bernard & Goedhart, Theo & Kapteyn, Arie, 1980. "The Poverty Line-A Pilot Survey in Europe," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(3), pages 461-465, August.
    23. Kapteyn, Arie & Van Herwaarden, Floor G., 1980. "Interdependent welfare functions and optimal income distribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 375-397, December.
    24. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    25. Seidl, Christian & Theilen, Bernd, 1994. "Stochastic independence of distributional attitudes and social status : A comparison of German and Polish data," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 295-310, July.
    26. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    27. Ratchford, Brian T., 1985. "The individual welfare function : A comment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 365-374, December.
    28. Van Praag, Bernard M. S. & Kapteyn, Arie, 1973. "Further evidence on the individual welfare function of income: An empirical investigatiion in The Netherlands," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 33-62, April.
    29. Klaas de Vos & Thesia I. Garner, 1991. "An Evaluation Of Subjective Poverty Definitions: Comparing Results From The U.S. And The Netherlands," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(3), pages 267-285, September.
    30. Theo Goedhart & Victor Halberstadt & Arie Kapteyn & Bernard van Praag, 1977. "The Poverty Line: Concept and Measurement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(4), pages 503-520.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:pru:wpaper:21 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Armin Falk & Markus Knell, "undated". "Choosing the Joneses On the Endogeneity of Reference Groups," IEW - Working Papers 053, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    3. Lembregts, Christophe & Pandelaere, Mario, 2014. ""A 20% income increase for everyone?": The effect of relative increases in income on perceived income inequality," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 37-47.

    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. Yoram Amiel, 1998. "The Subjective Approach to the Measurement of Income Inequality (published in Handbook of Income Inequality Measurement, J Silber (ed), Kluwer Academic Publishers (1999), pp.227-241)," STICERD - Distributional Analysis Research Programme Papers 38, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    2. Thesia I. Garner & Kathleen Short, 2005. "Economic Well-Being Based on Income, Consumer Expenditures and Personal Assessments of Minimal Needs," Working Papers 381, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    3. Wim Groot & Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink & Erik Plug, 2004. "Money for health: the equivalent variation of cardiovascular diseases," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(9), pages 859-872, September.
    4. Coral del Río, 2002. "Desigualdad intermedia paretiana," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 26(2), pages 299-321, May.
    5. Armin Falk & Markus Knell, "undated". "Choosing the Joneses On the Endogeneity of Reference Groups," IEW - Working Papers 053, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    6. James E. Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) Poverty Measures: Twenty-Five Years Later," Working Papers 2010-14, The George Washington University, Institute for International Economic Policy.
    7. Claudio Zoli, 2012. "Characterizing Inequality Equivalence Criteria," Working Papers 32/2012, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    8. van Praag, B. M. S., 1984. "Household Cost Functions And Equivalence Scales An Alternative Approach," Econometric Institute Archives 272287, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    9. Francisco Azpitarte & Olga Alonso-Villar, 2012. "A Dominance Criterion for Measuring Income Inequality from a Centrist View: The Case of Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2012n03, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    10. Patrick Moyes, 2007. "An extended Gini approach to inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(3), pages 279-303, December.
    11. Groot, Wim & Maassen van den Brink, Henriette & Plug, Erik, 2002. "Money for Health: The Compensating Variation of Cardiovascular Diseases," IZA Discussion Papers 653, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Claudio Zoli, 2018. "A Note on Progressive Taxation and Inequality Equivalence," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality, Taxation and Intergenerational Transmission, volume 26, pages 15-33, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    13. Thesia I. Garner & Kathleen Short, 2005. "Personal Assessments of Minimum Income and Expenses: What Do They Tell Us about 'Minimum Living' Thresholds and Equivalence Scales?," Working Papers 379, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    14. Walter Bossert & Kohei Kamaga, 2020. "An axiomatization of the mixed utilitarian–maximin social welfare orderings," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 451-473, March.
    15. James Foster & Joel Greer & Erik Thorbecke, 2010. "The Foster–Greer–Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measures: 25 years later," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(4), pages 491-524, December.
    16. Alain Chateauneuf & Patrick Moyes, 2005. "Lorenz non-consistent welfare and inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(2), pages 61-87, January.
    17. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Sarkar, Palash, 2022. "A synthesis of local and effective tax progressivity measurement," MPRA Paper 115180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Miguel Niño‐Zarazúa & Laurence Roope & Finn Tarp, 2017. "Global Inequality: Relatively Lower, Absolutely Higher," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 661-684, December.
    19. Michael Lokshin & Nithin Umapathi & Stefano Paternostro, 2006. "Robustness of subjective welfare analysis in a poor developing country: Madagascar 2001," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 559-591.
    20. Marcello Basili & Paulo Casaca & Alain Chateauneuf & Maurizio Franzini, 2017. "Multidimensional Pigou–Dalton transfers and social evaluation functions," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 573-590, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; social welfare and poverty;

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:ehl:lserod:6595. 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: LSERO Manager (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.