IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v70y2015icp239-248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Is Social Inequality and Why Does it Matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Binelli, Chiara
  • Loveless, Matthew
  • Whitefield, Stephen

Abstract

As distinct from income or wealth inequality, ‘social inequality’ is currently poorly understood and, at best, unevenly measured. We conceptualize social inequality as the relative position of individuals along a number of dimensions that measure achieved outcomes and, innovatively, expectations about future outcomes. Using data from 12 Central and Eastern European countries, we find that cross-national patterns of social inequality differ significantly from patterns derived from income inequality measures. Moreover, our measure of social inequality is much better correlated than income inequality with other country differences such as higher levels of economic performance and human development, and stronger political institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Binelli, Chiara & Loveless, Matthew & Whitefield, Stephen, 2015. "What Is Social Inequality and Why Does it Matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 239-248.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:70:y:2015:i:c:p:239-248
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X15000315
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.007?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    2. Gary S. Becker & Tomas J. Philipson & Rodrigo R. Soares, 2005. "The Quantity and Quality of Life and the Evolution of World Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 277-291, March.
    3. Neumayer, Eric, 2003. "Beyond income: convergence in living standards, big time," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 275-296, September.
    4. Oswald, Andrew J, 1997. "Happiness and Economic Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(445), pages 1815-1831, November.
    5. Koen Decancq & María Ana Lugo, 2012. "Inequality of Wellbeing: A Multidimensional Approach," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 79(316), pages 721-746, October.
    6. Hobijn, Bart & Franses, Philip Hans, 2001. "Are living standards converging?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 171-200, July.
    7. Charles F. Manski, 2004. "Measuring Expectations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1329-1376, September.
    8. Cagetti, Marco & De Nardi, Mariacristina, 2008. "Wealth Inequality: Data And Models," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(S2), pages 285-313, September.
    9. Stark, Oded & Taylor, J Edward, 1991. "Migration Incentives, Migration Types: The Role of Relative Deprivation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(408), pages 1163-1178, September.
    10. Hirschberg, Joseph G. & Maasoumi, Esfandiar & Slottje, Daniel J., 1991. "Cluster analysis for measuring welfare and quality of life across countries," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 131-150, October.
    11. Dan Devroye & Richard B. Freeman, 2001. "Does Inequality in Skills Explain Inequality in Earnings Across Advanced Countries?," NBER Working Papers 8140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Trommlerová, Sofia Karina & Klasen, Stephan & Leßmann, Ortrud, 2015. "Determinants of Empowerment in a Capability-Based Poverty Approach: Evidence from The Gambia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-15.
    13. Karl Kaltenthaler & Stephen Ceccoli & Ronald Gelleny, 2008. "Attitudes toward Eliminating Income Inequality in Europe," European Union Politics, , vol. 9(2), pages 217-241, June.
    14. Gruber, Lloyd & Kosack, Stephen, 2014. "The tertiary tilt: education and inequality in the developing world," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 54202, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Stanley Fischer, 2003. "Globalization and Its Challenges," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 1-30, May.
    16. Decancq, Koen & Decoster, André & Schokkaert, Erik, 2009. "The Evolution of World Inequality in Well-being," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 11-25, January.
    17. Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, 2003. "The Human Development Paradigm: Operationalizing Sen'S Ideas On Capabilities," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 301-317.
    18. Slottje, Daniel J, 1991. "Measuring the Quality of Life across Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(4), pages 684-693, November.
    19. Paul Anand & Graham Hunter & Ian Carter & Keith Dowding & Francesco Guala & Martin Van Hees, 2009. "The Development of Capability Indicators," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(1), pages 125-152.
    20. Gruber, Lloyd & Kosack, Stephen, 2014. "The Tertiary Tilt: Education and Inequality in the Developing World," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 253-272.
    21. Paul Dickes & Marie Valentova, 2013. "Construction, Validation and Application of the Measurement of Social Cohesion in 47 European Countries and Regions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 827-846, September.
    22. Sabina Alkire, 2011. "Multidimensional Poverty and its Discontents," OPHI Working Papers 46, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    23. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell & Paul Frijters, 2004. "How Important is Methodology for the estimates of the determinants of Happiness?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 641-659, July.
    24. Goodin, Robert & Dryzek, John, 1980. "Rational Participation: The Politics of Relative Power," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 273-292, July.
    25. Mark McGillivray & J. Ram Pillarisetti, 2004. "International inequality in well-being," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 563-574.
    26. Welzel, Christian, 2014. "Evolution, Empowerment, and Emancipation: How Societies Climb the Freedom Ladder," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 33-51.
    27. Richard A. Easterlin, 2000. "The Worldwide Standard of Living since 1800," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 7-26, Winter.
    28. James Foster & Luis Lopez-Calva & Miguel Szekely, 2005. "Measuring the Distribution of Human Development: methodology and an application to Mexico," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 5-25.
    29. A.B. Atkinson, 1999. "Income inequality in the UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(4), pages 283-288, June.
    30. Maasoumi, Esfandiar, 1986. "The Measurement and Decomposition of Multi-dimensional Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(4), pages 991-997, July.
    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. Bishoy Louis Zaki & Francesco Nicoli & Ellen Wayenberg & Bram Verschuere, 2022. "Contagious inequality: economic disparities and excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic [Excess all-cause mortality and COVID-19-related mortality: A temporal analysis in 22 countries, from J," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(2), pages 199-216.
    2. PALAMARA Daniel R., 2016. "Social Status in Norway and the Law of Jante: An Analysis of ISSP Social Inequality Data," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 01, March.
    3. Argatu Ruxandra, 2018. "The role of Romanian social enterprises in the alleviation of poverty and social exclusion," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 13(4), pages 1257-1275, December.
    4. Mehmet Pinar, 2019. "Multidimensional Well-Being and Inequality Across the European Regions with Alternative Interactions Between the Well-Being Dimensions," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 31-72, July.
    5. Chiara Binelli & Matthew Loveless, 2016. "The urban–rural divide," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 24(2), pages 211-231, April.
    6. Ruth McAreavey & David L. Brown, 2019. "Comparative analysis of rural poverty and inequality in the UK and the US," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, December.

    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. Decancq, Koen & Decoster, André & Schokkaert, Erik, 2009. "The Evolution of World Inequality in Well-being," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 11-25, January.
    2. Andrew E. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2010. "Will GDP growth increase happiness in developing countries?," PSE Working Papers halshs-00564985, HAL.
    3. Jordá , Vanesa & Trueba, Carmen & Sarabia, Jose Maria, 2014. "Análisis multidimensional de la desigualdad en el marco del desarrollo humano/Multidimensional Analysis of Inequality under the Human Development Framework," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 32, pages 765-788, Mayo.
    4. Bienvenido Ortega & Antonio Casquero & Jesús Sanjuán, 2016. "Corruption and Convergence in Human Development: Evidence from 69 Countries During 1990–2012," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 691-719, June.
    5. Maria Ana Lugo & Esfandiar Maasoumi, 2008. "Multidimensional Poverty Measures from an Information Theory Perspective," Working Papers 85, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. DECANCQ, Koen & FLEURBAEY, Marc & SCHOKKAERT, Erik, 2014. "Inequality, income, and well-being," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2014018, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    7. Koen Decancq, 2017. "Measuring Multidimensional Inequality in the OECD Member Countries with a Distribution-Sensitive Better Life Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 1057-1086, April.
    8. Nesson, Erik T. & Robinson, Joshua J., 2015. "An information theory based framework for the measurement of population health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 86-103.
    9. Daniel Gallardo-Albarrán, 2024. "Capital, Productivity, and Human Welfare Since 1870," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 2023-2048, Springer.
    10. Eric Neumayer, 2004. "HIV/AIDS and its impact on convergence in life expectancy, infant and child survival rates," HEW 0405001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Ángeles Sánchez & Jorge Chica-Olmo & Juan de Dios Jiménez-Aguilera, 2018. "A Space–Time Study for Mapping Quality of Life in Andalusia During the Crisis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 699-728, January.
    12. Vicente Royuela & Manuel Artis, 2006. "Convergence analysis in terms of quality of life in the urban systems of the Barcelona province, 1991-2000," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 485-492.
    13. Vanesa Jordá & José Sarabia, 2015. "International Convergence in Well-Being Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 1-27, January.
    14. Thi Kim Thanh Bui & Guido Erreygers, 2020. "Multidimensional Inequality in Vietnam, 2002–2012," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-31, April.
    15. Koen Decancq & Maria Ana Lugo, 2008. "Setting Weights in Multidimensional Indices of Well-Being," OPHI Working Papers 18, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    16. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    17. Diana Gutiérrez Posada & Fernando Rubiera Morollón & Ana Viñuela, 2018. "Ageing Places in an Ageing Country: The Local Dynamics of the Elderly Population in Spain," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 109(3), pages 332-349, July.
    18. Alpaslan Akay & Olivier Bargain & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 2017. "Home Sweet Home?: Macroeconomic Conditions in Home Countries and the Well-Being of Migrants," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(2), pages 351-373.
    19. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2015. "Happiness, Equivalent Incomes and Respect for Individual Preferences," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1082-1106, December.
    20. Haroon Jamal & Amir Jahan Khan, 2003. "The Changing Profile of Regional Inequality," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 42(2), pages 113-123.

    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:eee:wdevel:v:70:y:2015:i:c:p:239-248. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.