Abstract
The paper considers nested social welfare functions and ethical inequality measures when households may differ in needs. Several principles of transfers between different household types are introduced and systematically examined. Their implications for the form of welfare functions and inequality measures are derived. The corresponding classes are completely described.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bourguignon, F.: Family size and social utility. Income distribution dominance criteria. J. Econom. 42, 67–80 (1989)
Dagum, C.: Relationship between inequality measures and social welfare functions. J. Econom. 43, 91–102 (1990)
Dalton, H.: The measurement of inequality of income. Econ. J. 30, 348–361 (1920).
Donaldson, D., Pendakur, K.: Equivalent-expenditure functions and expenditure-dependent equivalence scales. J. Public Econ. 88, 175–208 (2004)
Ebert, U.: Income inequality and differences in household size. Math. Soc. Sci. 30, 37–55 (1995)
Ebert, U.: Absolute inequality indices and equivalence differences. In: S. Zandvikili (ed.) Taxation and Inequality, Research on Economic Inequality, vol. 7, pp 131–152. JAI Press, Greenwhich, CT (1997)
Ebert, U.: Sequential generalized Lorenz dominance and transfer principles. Bull. Econ. Res. 52, 113–122 (2000)
Ebert, U.: Social welfare, inequality, and poverty when needs differ. Soc. Choice Welf. 23, 415–448 (2004)
Ebert, U.: Coherent inequality views: linear invariant measures reconsidered. Math. Soc. Sci. 47, 1–20 (2004)
Ebert, U.: Ethical inequality measures and the redistribution of income when needs differ, http://www.uni-oldenburg.de/vwl/download/Siena.pdf (2005)
Hammond, P.J.: Equity, Arrow’s conditions, and Rawls’ difference principle. Econometrica 44, 793–804 (1976)
Lorenz, M.O.: Methods of measuring concentration of wealth. J. Am. Stat. Assoc. 9, 209–219 (1905)
Shorrocks, A.F.: Inequality and welfare evaluation of heterogeneous income distribution. Journal of Economic Inequality 2, 193–218 (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ebert, U. Ethical inequality measures and the redistribution of income when needs differ. J Econ Inequal 5, 263–278 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-006-9052-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-006-9052-6