IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/inq/inqwps/ecineq2024-678.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does the Gini index represent people's views on inequality?

Author

Listed:
  • Brice Magdalou

    (CNRS, AMSE, France)

  • Gaëlle Aymeric

    (CEE-M, University of Montpellier, France)

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a web-experiment on a representative sample of the French population. It examines the acceptability of the Pigou-Dalton principle of transfers, which posits that transferring income from an individual to a relatively poorer one, reduces overall inequality. While up to 60% of respondents reject standard transfers, the three alternative transfers we test receive more approval, especially those promoting solidarity among lower-income recipients. The study then models respondents’ preferences with two types of social welfare functions, utilitarian and Extended Gini. The Extended Gini model aligns better with individual preferences. Nevertheless, Extended Gini-type social welfare functions that adhere to the principle of transfers (including the one underlying the Gini index) poorly capture preferences of each individual. However, quite surprisingly, the preferences of the median individual align almost perfectly with the Gini-based function, using either parametric or non-parametric estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Brice Magdalou & Gaëlle Aymeric, 2024. "Does the Gini index represent people's views on inequality?," Working Papers 678, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    • Handle: RePEc:inq:inqwps:ecineq2024-678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ecineq.org/milano/WP/ECINEQ2024-678.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2024
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gini Index; Web Experiment; Progressive Transfers; Social Welfare Functions; Inequality; Utilitarianism; Extended Gini; Ethical Preferences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • C99 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Other
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • 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:inq:inqwps:ecineq2024-678. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Maria Ana Lugo (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ecineea.html .

    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.