IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ete/ceswps/ces0014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Choice of Inequality Measure in Empirical Research on Distributive Judgements

Author

Listed:
  • André Decoster
  • Erik Schokkaert

Abstract

We analyse questionnaire data from a representative sample of the Flemish working population. For 781 respondents we construct their perception of the actual and of the fair income distribution. We check whether the use of different inequality measures leads to different interpretations of these data. The ranking of individuals on the basis of their perceived and fair inequality is hardly affected and the same is true for the explanation of the interindividual variation. However, the simple classification of individual respondents in those who want and those who do not want less inequality does depend on the measure used in 20% of the cases. Moreover, the tendency to equalise is a poor measure of conservatism.

Suggested Citation

  • André Decoster & Erik Schokkaert, 2000. "The Choice of Inequality Measure in Empirical Research on Distributive Judgements," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces0014, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces0014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/121652/1/DPS0014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amiel,Yoram & Cowell,Frank, 1999. "Thinking about Inequality," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521466967, January.
    2. Schokkaert, Erik & Lagrou, Leo, 1983. "An empirical approach to distributive justice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 33-52, June.
    3. repec:bla:kyklos:v:44:y:1991:i:3:p:325-45 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:bla:econom:v:50:y:1983:i:197:p:3-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. van Wijck, Peter, 1994. "Evaluating income distributions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 173-190, March.
    6. Kolm, Serge-Christophe, 1976. "Unequal inequalities. I," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 416-442, June.
    7. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    8. Harrison, Elizabeth & Seidl, Christian, 1994. "Perceptional Inequality and Preferential Judgements: An Empirical Examination of Distributional Axioms," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 79(1-2), pages 61-81, April.
    9. Overlaet, Bert & Lagrou, Leo, 1981. "Attitude towards a redistribution of income," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 197-215, September.
    10. Arts, Wil & Hermkens, Piet & van Wijck, Peter, 1991. "Income and the idea of justice: principles, judgments, and their framing/s," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 121-140, March.
    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. Asis Kumar Banerjee, 2015. "The Squared Coefficient of Variation as an Inequality Index: A Social Evaluation Characterization," Review of Economics & Finance, Better Advances Press, Canada, vol. 5, pages 45-54, August.

    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. Claudio Zoli, 2012. "Characterizing Inequality Equivalence Criteria," Working Papers 32/2012, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    2. Patrick Moyes, 2007. "An extended Gini approach to inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(3), pages 279-303, December.
    3. Claudio Zoli, 2018. "A Note on Progressive Taxation and Inequality Equivalence," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Inequality, Taxation and Intergenerational Transmission, volume 26, pages 15-33, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Michele Bernasconi, 2002. "How should income be divided? questionnaire evidence from the theory of “Impartial preferences”," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 77(1), pages 163-195, December.
    5. Alain Chateauneuf & Patrick Moyes, 2005. "Lorenz non-consistent welfare and inequality measurement," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(2), pages 61-87, January.
    6. Joshua Greenstein, 2020. "The Precariat Class Structure and Income Inequality among US Workers: 1980–2018," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 447-469, September.
    7. Michele Bernasconi, 2002. "How should income be divided? questionnaire evidence from the theory of “Impartial preferences”," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 163-195, December.
    8. Marko Ledić & Ivica Rubil & Ivica Urban, 2023. "Tax progressivity and social welfare with a continuum of inequality views," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(5), pages 1266-1296, October.
    9. Yoram Amiel & Michele Bernasconi & Frank Cowell & Valentino Dardanoni, 2015. "Do we value mobility?," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 44(2), pages 231-255, February.
    10. Patrick Moyes & Brice Magdalou, 2008. "Social Welfare, Inequality and Deprivation," LIS Working papers 502, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    11. Udo Ebert & Patrick Moyes, 2002. "Welfare, inequality and the transformation of incomes the case of weighted income distributions," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 9-50, December.
    12. Ravallion, Martin, 2004. "Competing concepts of inequality in the globalization debate," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3243, The World Bank.
    13. Ebert, Udo & Moyes, Patrick, 2000. "Consistent Income Tax Structures When Households Are Heterogeneous," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 116-150, January.
    14. La-Bhus Fah Jirasavetakul & Christoph Lakner, 2020. "The Distribution of Consumption Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Inequality Among All Africans," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-25.
    15. Hedenus, Fredrik & Azar, Christian, 2005. "Estimates of trends in global income and resource inequalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 351-364, November.
    16. Thomas Goda & Alejandro Torres García, 2017. "The Rising Tide of Absolute Global Income Inequality During 1850–2010: Is It Driven by Inequality Within or Between Countries?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 1051-1072, February.
    17. Udo Ebert, 2009. "Taking empirical studies seriously: the principle of concentration and the measurement of welfare and inequality," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 32(4), pages 555-574, May.
    18. Patrick MOYES, 2009. "Measuring Economic Inequalities (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2009-06, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    19. Gajdos, Thibault & Maurin, Eric, 2004. "Unequal uncertainties and uncertain inequalities: an axiomatic approach," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 93-118, May.
    20. Günther Rehme, 2007. "Education, Economic Growth and Measured Income Inequality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(295), pages 493-514, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:ete:ceswps:ces0014. 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: library EBIB (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://feb.kuleuven.be/Economics/ .

    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.