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The Vast Majority Income (VMI): A New Measure of Global Inequality

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Abstract

GDP per capita and the Human Development Index are acknowledged measures of development, but suffer from that fact that they are averages that conceal wide disparities in the overall population. As a result, it becomes necessary to either supplement these measures with information on distributional inequality or to directly adjust per capita income and other variables for distributional variations. What is needed, therefore, is a direct measure of the standard of living of the vast majority. In the paper on which this policy note is based, we develop a new measure called the Vast Majority Income (VMI).

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  • Anwar Shaikh & Amr Ragab, 2007. "The Vast Majority Income (VMI): A New Measure of Global Inequality," SCEPA policy note series. 2007-02, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    • Handle: RePEc:epa:cepapn:2007-02
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Amartya Sen, 1976. "Real National Income," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 43(1), pages 19-39.
    2. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Indicators of Inequality and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-25, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Anwar Shaikh, Amr Ragab, 2007. "WP 2007-3 An International Comparison of the Incomes of the Vast Majority," SCEPA working paper series. 2007-3, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter J. Lambert & Subbu Subramanian, 2015. "Shaikh and Ragab's `Incomes of the Vast Majority': Some additions and extensions," Working Papers 354, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    2. Brian Nolan, 2020. "The Median Versus Inequality-Adjusted GNI as Core Indicator of ‘Ordinary’ Household Living Standards in Rich Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 569-585, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Development; Millenium; Foreign Aid; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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