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Inequality Measurement: Methods and Data

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Abstract

In recent years there has been a surge of interest in the subject of inequality, fuelled by new facts and new thinking. The literature on inequality has expanded rapidly as official data on income, wealth, and other personal information have become richer and more easily accessible. Ideas about the meaning of inequality have expanded to encompass new concepts and different dimensions of economic inequality. The purpose of this chapter is to give a concise overview of the issues that are involved in translating ideas about inequality into practice using various types of data.

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Acknowledgments

Responsible Section Editor: Eva Sierminska.

The chapter has benefitted from comments of the editors. The work was supported financially by ESRC project ES/L016273/1, and by projects ANR- 17-EURE-0020, ANR-17-CE41-0007-02, and ANR-19-FRAL-0006 managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR). There is no conflict of interest. We are grateful to Visheshika Baheti for help in producing the final version of the chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. STICERD, London School of Economics, London, UK

    Frank A. Cowell

  2. AMSE, CNRS and EHESS, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France

    Emmanuel Flachaire

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  1. Frank A. Cowell
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  2. Emmanuel Flachaire
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Correspondence to Frank A. Cowell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Esch-sur-Alzette, Belval, Luxembourg

    Eva M. Sierminska

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Cowell, F.A., Flachaire, E. (2021). Inequality Measurement: Methods and Data. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_148-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_148-1

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