IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-01d30001.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality measurement and the leaky-bucket paradox

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Seidl

    (Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel)

Abstract

The transfer principle requires inequality measures to decrease for mean preserving contractions. How much leakage of transfers can preserve inequality? Conditions are shown for leaky transfers to preserve inequality. We find that positive remainders with positive or negative leakage as well as negative remainders with positive leakage may occur. This constitutes the leaky-bucket paradox.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Seidl, 2001. "Inequality measurement and the leaky-bucket paradox," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 4(6), pages 1-7.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-01d30001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2001/Volume4/EB-01D30001A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sen, Amartya K, 1976. "Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(2), pages 219-231, March.
    2. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    3. Creedy, J. & Hurn, S., 1998. "Distributional Preferences and the Extended Gini Measures of Inequality," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 619, The University of Melbourne.
    4. 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.
    5. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
    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. Peter Lambert, & Giuseppe Lanza, 2003. "The effect on inequality of changing one or two incomes," IFS Working Papers W03/15, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    2. Schlör, Holger & Fischer, Wolfgang & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2013. "Sustainable development, justice and the Atkinson index: Measuring the distributional effects of the German energy transition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1493-1499.
    3. Camacho Cuena, Eva & Neugebauer, Tibor & Seidl, Christian, 2004. "Leaky bucket Paradoxes in income inequality perceptions: an experimental investigation," Economics Working Papers 2004-04, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    4. Casilda Lasso de la Vega & Christian Seidl, 2007. "The Impossibility of a Just Pigouvian," Working Papers 69, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    5. Eva Camacho-Cuena & Tibor Neugebauer & Christian Seidl, 2007. "Leaky Buckets Versus Compensating Justice: An Experimental Investigation," Working Papers 74, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Bosmans, Kristof, 2014. "Distribution-sensitivity of rank-dependent poverty measures," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 69-76.
    7. Peter Lambert & Giuseppe Lanza, 2006. "The effect on inequality of changing one or two incomes," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 4(3), pages 253-277, December.
    8. Schlör, Holger & Fischer, Wolfgang & Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich, 2012. "Measuring social welfare, energy and inequality in Germany," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 135-142.
    9. Camacho Cuena, Eva & Neugebauer, Tibor & Seidl, Christian, 2005. "Compensating justice beats leaky buckets: an experimental investigation," Economics Working Papers 2005-06, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.

    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. 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.
    2. Jens Leth Hougaard & Juan D. Moreno-Ternero & Lars Peter Østerdal, 2013. "On the Measurement of the (Multidimensional) Inequality of Health Distributions," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 111-129, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Francesco Andreoli & Claudio Zoli, 2020. "From unidimensional to multidimensional inequality: a review," METRON, Springer;Sapienza Università di Roma, vol. 78(1), pages 5-42, April.
    4. Clauss, Markus & Schnabel, Reinhold, 2008. "Distributional and behavioural effects of the German labour market reform," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(4), pages 431-446.
    5. Srinivas Goli & Nagendra Kumar Maurya & Moradhvaj & Prem Bhandari, 2019. "Regional Differentials in Multidimensional Poverty in Nepal: Rethinking Dimensions and Method of Computation," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, March.
    6. Markus Jäntti & Ravi Kanbur & Milla Nyyssölä & Jukka Pirttilä, 2014. "Poverty and Welfare Measurement on the Basis of Prospect Theory," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(1), pages 182-205, March.
    7. Duclos, Jean-Yves & Sahn, David E. & Younger, Stephen D., 2011. "Partial multidimensional inequality orderings," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 225-238.
    8. Lucía Gorjón & Sara de la Rica & Antonio Villar, 2018. "The social cost of unemployment: the Spanish labour market from a social welfare approach," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2018-22, FEDEA.
    9. Ferreira,Francisco H. G., 2022. "The Analysis of Inequality in the Bretton Woods Institutions," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10149, The World Bank.
    10. Kunihiro Kimura, 1994. "A micro-macro linkage in the measurement of inequality: Another look at the Gini coefficient," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 83-97, February.
    11. Reddy, S. R. C. & Chakravarty, S. P., 1999. "Forest Dependence and Income Distribution in a Subsistence Economy: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1141-1149, July.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. F. A. Cowell, 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(2), pages 567-579, June.
    15. Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D'Ambrosio & Pietro Muliere, 2003. "Target Shortfall Orderings and Indices," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 340, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Jean–Yves Duclos & Phillipe Grégoire, 2002. "Absolute and Relative Deprivation and the Measurement of Poverty," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(4), pages 471-492, December.
    17. Sreenivasan Subramanian, 2004. "Indicators of Inequality and Poverty," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-25, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Breitmeyer, Carsten & Hakenes, Hendrik & Pfingsten, Andreas, 2004. "From poverty measurement to the measurement of downside risk," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 327-348, May.
    19. Teguh Dartanto, 2011. "A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of the Application of an Endogenous Poverty Line and Its Relationship with the Poverty Impact of Policy Reforms," Working Papers in Economics and Business 201101, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, revised Nov 2011.
    20. Lucía Gorjón & Sara de la Rica & Antonio Villar, 2019. "The social cost of unemployment in Spain: who are the losers?," Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2019-12, FEDEA.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D3 - Microeconomics - - Distribution

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-01d30001. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.