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The measurement of welfare change

Author

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  • Bossert, Walter

    (Department of Economics and CIREQ, University of Montreal)

  • Dutta, Bhaskar

    (Department of Economics, University of Warwick)

Abstract

We propose and characterize a class of measures of welfare change that are based on the generalized Gini social welfare functions. In addition, we analyze these measures in the context of a second-order dominance property that is akin to generalized Lorenz dominance as introduced by Shorrocks (1983) and Kakwani (1984). Because we consider welfare differences rather than welfare levels, the requisite equivalence result involves linear welfare functions (that is, those associated with the generalized Ginis) only, as opposed to the entire class of strictly increasing and S-concave welfare indicators. Journal of Economic

Suggested Citation

  • Bossert, Walter & Dutta, Bhaskar, 2018. "The measurement of welfare change," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 39, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:wcreta:39
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    10. Sen, Amartya, 1973. "On Economic Inequality," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198281931.
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    13. Capeau, Bart & Ooghe, Erwin, 2007. "On comparing heterogeneous populations: Is there really a conflict between welfarism and a concern for greater equality in living standards?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-28, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alekseev, Aleksandr & Sokolov, Mikhail V., 2021. "How to measure the average rate of change?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 43-59.
    2. Dirk Van de gaer & Flaviana Palmisano, 2018. "Growth, mobility and social welfare," Working Papers 476, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    3. Paolo Brunori & Flaviana Palmisano & Vito Peragine, 2022. "Income taxation and equity: new dominance criteria with a microsimulation application," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 20(3), pages 509-536, September.
    4. Van de gaer, Dirk & Palmisano, Flaviana, 2021. "Growth, mobility and social progress," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 164-182.
    5. Seth, Suman & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2021. "A mobility decomposition of absolute measures of panel distributional change," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income inequality ; welfare change ; dominance criteria ; generalized Ginis JEL classification numbers: D31;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

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