Ethical Indices Of Distance Between Income Profiles

Abstract

In the growing literature on the welfare comparisons of income profiles, a concept which has recently received some attention is that of economic distance between income profiles. The economic distance (or distance for short) between two income profiles is supposed to reflect the degree of affluence or well-being of one population relative to another. Hence this rules out a simple comparison of the inequality of incomes (according to some inequality index) within the respective populations, since this approach neglects differences in mean incomes and so ignores an important factor which influences the relative well-being of two populations.