Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Convergence of Income Distributions: Another Measurement Problem

  • Published:
Constitutional Political Economy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

According to EU-policy, the cohesion of the Communitydepends crucially on the convergence of per-capita incomes acrossEU member-states. By employing various indicators which are supposedto compare distributions on EU income-data, the paper shows thatthe EU-notion of cohesion faces a substantial measurement problem.Instead of arriving at a unique order, the indicators frequentlyyield conflicting results about the convergence of a particulardistribution. The paper examines the reasons and their consequencesfor institutional choice in the European Union; thus approachingthe cohesion versus conflict issue from an economic perspective.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alesina, A., and Rodrick, D. (1991) "Distributive Politics and Economic Growth." NBER Working Paper #3668.

  • Arrow, K. J. [1963 (1951)] Social Choice and Individual Values, 2nd ed. Yale: Cowles Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. B. (1970) "On the Measurement of Inequality." Journal of Economic Theory 2: 244–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. B. (1997) "Bringing Income Distribution in from the Cold." Economic Journal 107: 297–321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Axelrod, R. (1984) The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balassa, B. (1964) "The Purchasing-Power Parity Doctrine: AReappraisal." Journal of Political Economy LXXII: 584–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barro, R. J., and Sala-i-Martín, X. (1992) "Convergence." Journal of Political Economy 100: 223–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumol, W. J., Nelson, R. R., and Wolff, E. N. (1994) Convergence of Productivity: Cross-National Studies and Historical Evidence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Begg, I., and Mayes, D. (1993) "Cohesion in the European Community: A Key Imperative for the 1990s?" Regional Science and Urban Economics 23: 427–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, J. M. [1978 (1969)] Cost and Choice-An Inquiry in Economic Theory, Midway Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burtless, C. (1995) "International Trade and the Rise in Earnings Inequality." Journal of Economic Literature 33: 800–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • CEC (Commission of the European Communities) (1993) European Economy: The Economics of Community Public Finance. Luxembourg: Commission of the European Communities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowell, F. A. (1995) Measuring Inequality. LSE Handbooks in Economics, 2nd ed. London: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, H. (1920) Some Aspects of the Inequality of Incomes in Modern Communities. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J., and Hoy, M. (1995) "Making Inequality Comparisons When Lorenz Curves Intersect." American Economic Review 85: 980–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Estebán, J. Ma. (1994) "La desigualdad interregional en Europa y en España: descripción y análisis. In: Crecimiento y Convergencia Regional en España y en Europa Vol. II, 13–84. Barcelona: Instituto de Análisis Economico (CSIC).

    Google Scholar 

  • European Commission (1996) First Report on Economic and Social Cohesion 1996. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. H. (1988) Passions Within Reason. New York and London: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. H., and Cook, P. J. (1995) The Winner-Take-All Society. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, M. (1992) "Do Old Fallacies Ever Die?" Journal of Economic Literature 30: 2129–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottschalk, P., and Smeeding, T. M. (1997) "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality." Journal of Economic Literature 35: 633–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammond, P. (1976)"Why Ethical Measures of Inequality Need Interpersonal Comparisons." Theory and Decision 7: 263–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harsanyi, J. C. (1955) "CardinalWelfare, Individualistic Ethics, and Interpersonal Comparisons of Utility." Journal of Political Economy 63: 309–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, F. A. von [1982 (1976)] Law, Legislation and Liberty, one-volume ed. London, Melbourne and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckscher, E., and Ohlin, B. [1991 (1919/24)] Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory. Ed. and transl. by Flam, H. and Flanders, J. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howes, S. (1996) "The Influence of Aggregation on the Ordering of Distributions." Economica 63: 253–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krugman, P. (1995) "Technology, Trade, and Factor Prices." NBER Working Paper #5355.

  • Krugman, P. (1996) "The CPI and the Rat Race: New Evidence on the Old Question of Whether Money Buys Happiness." Slate12/21/96.

  • Krugman, P., and Venables, A. J. (1995) "Globalization and the Inequality of Nations." Quarterly Journal of Economics 110: 857–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lachman, L. M. (1986) The Market as a Process. Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, P. (1989) The Distribution and Redistribution of Income: A Mathematical Analysis. Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonardi, R. (1995) Convergence, Cohesion and Integration in the European Union. Houndmills and London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quah, D. (1993) "Galton's Fallacy and Tests of the Convergence Hypothesis." Scandinavian Journal of Economics 95: 427–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quah, D. (1996): "Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics." Economic Journal 106: 1045–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selten, R. (1978) "The Chain-Store Paradox." Theory and Decision 9: 127–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. (1973) On Economic Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, A. [1995 (1992)] Inequality Reexamined, 3rd ed. New York and Cambridge, Mass.: Russell Sage Foundation and Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shannon, C. E. (1948) "The Mathematical Theory of Communication." Bell System Technical Journal 27: 379–423, 623-56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shorrocks, A. F. (1983) "Ranking Income Distributions." Economica 50: 3–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shorrocks, A. F., and Foster, J. E. (1987) "Transfer Sensitive Inequality Measures." Review of Economic Studies LIV: 485–97.

  • Sinn, H.-W. (1996) "The Subsidiarity Principle and Market Failure in Systems Competition." NBER Working Paper #5411.

  • Sugden, R. (1986) The Economics of Rights, Co-operation and Welfare. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tam, M.-Y.S., and Zhang, R. (1996) "Ranking Income Distributions: The Tradeoff between Efficiency and Equality." Economica 63: 239–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Theil, H. (1967) Economics and Information Theory. Amsterdam and Chicago: North Holland and Rand McNally.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanberg, V. J. (1994) "Morality and Economics: De Moribus est Disputandum." In: Vanberg, V. J. (ed.) Rules and Choice in Economics, pp. 41–59. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weizsäcker, C. C. von (1984) "Was leistet die Property Rights Theorie für aktuelle wirtschaftspolitische Fragen?" In: Neumann, M. (ed.) Ansprüche, Eigentums-und Verfügungsrechte (Schriften des Vereins für Socialpolitik, N.F. Band 140), 123–52. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, A. (1994) North-South Trade, Employment and Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wirtschaftspolitisches Seminar, University of Cologne, Robert-Koch-Str. 41, D-50931, Köln, Germany

    Barbara Dluhosch

Authors
  1. Barbara Dluhosch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dluhosch, B. Convergence of Income Distributions: Another Measurement Problem. Constitutional Political Economy 8, 337–352 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009033515111

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009033515111

Keywords

Search

Navigation