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Inequality, Polarization and Conflict pp 77–95Cite as

Social Polarization

Part of the Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being book series (EIAP,volume 12)

Abstract

Social polarization refers to the widening of gap between specific subgroups of people in terms of their social circumstances and opportunities. The nature of relationships between high ethnic diversity and issues like social integration, public good provision, corruption, and growth has been explained in many significant contributions to the literature. This chapter studies social polarization using a rigorous axiomatic structure. Alternative indices, their analytical properties, and a social polarization ordering involving the population concentration curve are examined in details.

Keywords

  • Axioms
  • The Reynal-Querol index
  • Generalization
  • Characterizations
  • Alienation–identification approach
  • Population concentration curve
  • Ordering

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India

    Satya R. Chakravarty

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  1. Satya R. Chakravarty
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Chakravarty, S.R. (2015). Social Polarization. In: Inequality, Polarization and Conflict. Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being, vol 12. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2166-1_5

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