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The inequality possibility frontier : extensions and new applications

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  • Milanovic, Branko

Abstract

This paper extends the Inequality Possibility Frontier approach in two methodological directions. It allows the social minimum to increase with the average income of a society, and it derives all the Inequality Possibility Frontier statistics for two other inequality measures besides the Gini. Finally, it applies the framework to contemporary data, showing that the inequality extraction ratio can be used in the empirical analysis of post-1960 civil conflict around the world. The duration of conflict and the casualty rate are positively associated with the inequality extraction ratio, that is, with the extent to which elite pushes the actual inequality closer to its maximum level. Inequality, albeit slightly reformulated, is thus shown to play a role in explaining civil conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Milanovic, Branko, 2013. "The inequality possibility frontier : extensions and new applications," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6449, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6449
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Branko Milanovic, 2006. "An Estimate Of Average Income And Inequality In Byzantium Around Year 1000," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 52(3), pages 449-470, September.
    2. Lindert, Peter H. & Nafziger, Steven, 2014. "Russian Inequality on the Eve of Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 767-798, September.
    3. Maddison, Angus, 2007. "Contours of the World Economy 1-2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199227204.
    4. Frances Stewart, 2000. "Crisis Prevention: Tackling Horizontal Inequalities," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 245-262.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Erfurth, Philipp Emanuel, 2021. "Unequal Unification? Income Inequality and Unification in 19th Century Italy and Germany," SocArXiv 2fma9, Center for Open Science.
    2. Erfurth, Philipp, 2024. "Unequal unification? Income inequality and unification in nineteenth century Italy and Germany," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    3. Fix, Blair, 2018. "Energy, Hierarchy and the Origin of Inequality," SocArXiv v9pur, Center for Open Science.
    4. Alfani, Guido & Ryckbosch, Wouter, 2016. "Growing apart in early modern Europe? A comparison of inequality trends in Italy and the Low Countries, 1500–1800," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 143-153.
    5. Eslava, Francisco & Valencia Caicedo, Felipe, 2023. "Origins of Latin American inequality," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119763, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Guido Alfani & Wouter Ryckbosch, 2015. "Was there a ‘Little Convergence’ in inequality? Italy and the Low Countries compared, ca. 1500-1800," Working Papers 557, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    7. Alfani, Guido, 2015. "Economic Inequality in Northwestern Italy: A Long-Term View (Fourteenth to Eighteenth Centuries)," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(4), pages 1058-1096, December.
    8. Lindgren, Mattias, 2015. "The elusive quest for the subsistence line How much does the cost of survival vary between populations?," MPRA Paper 73891, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Blair Fix, 2019. "Energy, hierarchy and the origin of inequality," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-32, April.
    10. Alfani, Guido & Gierok, Victoria & Schaff, Felix, 2025. "Poverty in Germany from the Black Death until the Beginning of Industrialization," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    11. Alfani, Guido & Tadei, Federico, 2017. "Income Inequality In Colonial Africa: Building Social Tables For Pre-Independence Central African Republic, Ivory Coast And Senegal," African Economic History Working Paper 33/2017, African Economic History Network.
    12. Guido Alfani & Michele Bolla & Walter Scheidel, 2025. "A comparison of income inequality in the Roman and Chinese Han empires," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    13. Fix, Blair, 2018. "Energy, hierarchy and the origin of inequality," Working Papers on Capital as Power 2018/09, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism.
    14. repec:osf:socarx:v9pur_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Fix, Blair, 2019. "Energy, Hierarchy and the Origin of Inequality," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 14(4, April), pages 1-32.
    16. Andres Irarrazaval, 2023. "The Pillars of Shared Prosperity: Insights From Elite versus State Extraction And From a New Instrument," Working Papers wp549, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    17. Alain Trannoy, 2015. "Inequality and welfare: Is Europe special?," Working Papers 384, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    18. Tanveer Ahmed Naveed & David Gordon & Sami Ullah & Mary Zhang, 2021. "The Construction of an Asset Index at Household Level and Measurement of Economic Disparities in Punjab (Pakistan) by using MICS-Micro Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 73-95, May.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • Q30 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - General

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