IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v37y2008i1p31-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Two Types of Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Guillermina Jasso

    (New York University, New York, gj1@nyu.edu)

  • Samuel Kotz

    (George Washington University, Washington, DC)

Abstract

This article analyzes the mathematical connections between two kinds of inequality: inequality between persons (e.g., income inequality) and inequality between subgroups (e.g., racial inequality). The authors define a general inequality parameter in two-parameter continuous distributions. This parameter governs all measures of personal inequality (e.g., the Gini coefficient) and governs as well the gap (difference or ratio) between the means of subdistributions. It is thus established that in the distributions analyzed here, as personal inequality increases, so does inequality between subgroups. This general inequality parameter also governs Lorenz dominance and all quantities in the decomposition of Theil's mean logarithmic deviation into between-subgroup and within-subgroup components in the Pareto case. Thus, the general inequality parameter captures the ``deep structure'' of inequality. Finally, a whole-distribution graphical tool is introduced for assessing personal and subgroup inequality. Substantively, this work suggests that in societies characterized by special income distributions, whenever inequality disrupts social cohesion, it attacks on two fronts, via subgroup inequality as well as personal inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillermina Jasso & Samuel Kotz, 2008. "Two Types of Inequality," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 37(1), pages 31-74, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:37:y:2008:i:1:p:31-74
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124108318971
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124108318971
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124108318971?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barbara F. Reskin & Denise D. Bielby, 2005. "A Sociological Perspective on Gender and Career Outcomes," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 71-86, Winter.
    2. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    3. Shorrocks, A F, 1980. "The Class of Additively Decomposable Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 613-625, April.
    4. Goldin, Claudia, 1992. "Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195072709.
    5. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 75-99, Fall.
    6. William Darity, Jr. & Ashwini Deshpande, 2000. "Tracing the Divide: Intergroup Disparity across Countries," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 26(1), pages 75-85, Winter.
    7. Susan Harkness, 1996. "The gender earnings gap: evidence from the UK," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 1-36, May.
    8. Guillermina Jasso & Samuel Kotz, 2007. "A new continuous distribution and two new families of distributions based on the exponential," Statistica Neerlandica, Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research, vol. 61(3), pages 305-328, August.
    9. T. Paul Schultz, 1998. "Inequality in the distribution of personal income in the world: How it is changing and why," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 307-344.
    10. Das, T & Parikh, A, 1982. "Decomposition of Inequality Measures and a Comparative Analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 7(1-2), pages 23-48.
    11. Kwok Leung & Peter B Smith & Zhongming Wang & Haifa Sun, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Joint Venture Hotels in China: An Organizational Justice Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(4), pages 947-962, December.
    12. Gastwirth, Joseph L, 1971. "A General Definition of the Lorenz Curve," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 39(6), pages 1037-1039, November.
    13. Bourguignon, Francois, 1979. "Decomposable Income Inequality Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(4), pages 901-920, July.
    14. Kwok Leung & Peter B Smith & Zhongming Wang & Haifa Sun, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Joint Venture Hotels in China: An Organizational Justice Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(5), pages 947-962, December.
    15. repec:bla:revinw:v:29:y:1983:i:3:p:217-41 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Albert Berry & Francois Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 1983. "The Level Of World Inequality: How Much Can One Say?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 29(3), pages 217-241, September.
    17. William A. Darity & Patrick L. Mason, 1998. "Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, Codes of Gender," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 63-90, Spring.
    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. Guillermina Jasso, 2009. "A New Model of Wage Determination and Wage Inequality," Rationality and Society, , vol. 21(1), pages 113-168, February.
    2. Guillermina Jasso, 2020. "Anything Lorenz Curves Can Do, Top Shares Can Do: Assessing the TopBot Family of Inequality Measures," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 49(4), pages 947-981, November.
    3. Jasso, Guillermina, 2016. "(In)Equality and (In)Justice," IZA Discussion Papers 10125, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Chiang, Yen-Sheng, 2015. "Inequality measures perform differently in global and local assessments: An exploratory computational experiment," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 437(C), pages 1-11.

    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. Jasso, Guillermina & Kotz, Samuel, 2007. "Two Types of Inequality: Inequality Between Persons and Inequality Between Subgroups," IZA Discussion Papers 2749, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Marrero,Gustavo Alberto & Rodríguez,Juan Gabriel & Van Der Weide,Roy, 2021. "Does Race and Gender Inequality Impact Income Growth ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9865, The World Bank.
    3. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    4. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2002. "The World Distribution of Income (estimated from Individual Country Distributions)," NBER Working Papers 8933, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Stéphane Mussard & Françoise Seyte & Michel Terraza, 2006. "La décomposition de l’indicateur de Gini en sous-groupes : une revue de la littérature," Cahiers de recherche 06-11, Departement d'économique de l'École de gestion à l'Université de Sherbrooke.
    6. Bart Capéau & Andre Decoster, 2004. "The Rise or Fall of World Inequality: A Spurious Controversy?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2004-02, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2001. "The disturbing 'rise' of global income inequality," Economics Working Papers 616, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Apr 2002.
    8. B. Capéau & A. Decoster, 2003. "The Rise or Fall of World Inequality Big Issue or Apparent Controversy?," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 547-572.
    9. Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2006. "The World Distribution of Income: Falling Poverty and … Convergence, Period," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 351-397.
    10. Juan Luis Londoño & Miguel Székely, 2000. "Persistent Poverty and Excess Inequality: Latin America, 1970-1995," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 3, pages 93-134, May.
    11. Casilda Lasso de la Vega & Ana Urrutia & Oscar Volij, 2011. "An Axiomatic Characterization Of The Theil Inequality Order," Working Papers 1103, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    12. Maria Cubel & Peter Lambert, 2002. "Progression-neutral income tax reforms and horizontal inequity," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 1-8, December.
    13. Teixidó Figueras, Jordi & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2012. "Ecological Footprint Inequality: A methodological review and some results," Working Papers 2072/203168, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    14. Frankel, David M. & Volij, Oscar, 2011. "Measuring school segregation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 1-38, January.
    15. Lorena Remuzgo & Jose Maria Sarabia, 2015. "A general factorial decomposition of the second Theil index of inequality with applications in environmental economics," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(2), pages 1369-1378.
    16. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2010:i:062 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. 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.
    18. Marco Ranaldi, 2016. "On the Measurement of Functional Income Distribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 16051, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    19. Satya Chakravarty, 2001. "The Variance as a subgroup decomposable measure of inequality," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 79-95, January.
    20. François Bourguignon & Christian Morrisson, 2002. "Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 727-744, September.
    21. Vani K. Borooah & John Mangan, 2012. "Measuring competitive balance in sports using generalized entropy with an application to English premier league football," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(9), pages 1093-1102, March.

    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:sae:somere:v:37:y:2008:i:1:p:31-74. 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: SAGE Publications (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.