INEQUALITY: CONCEPTS, DIMENSIONS, AND MEASUREMENT

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INEQUALITY CONCEPTS, DIMENSIONS, AND MEASUREMENT

• Introduction
• Some Conceptual Underpinnings
• Measurement Issues
• Welfare and Inequality Comparisons of Homogeneous
  Distributions
• Welfare and Inequality Comparisons of
  Heterogeneous Distributions
• Some Applications of Inequality Analysis
• Conclusion

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I SOME CONCEPTUAL UNDERPINNINGS

• Welfare Economics and Pareto Efficiency
• The Social Welfare Function
• The New Welfare Economics and Distributional
  Judgments
• Utilitarianism and Equity
• Rawlsian Equality
• Capability Theory
• The Equity-Efficiency Conflict
• Summary

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II THE MEASUREMENT OF INEQUALITY

• Preliminary Concepts
• The Lorenz Curve
• The Generalized Lorenz Curve
• Real-Valued Inequality Measures
• Axioms for Inequality Measurement
• Specific Inequality Measures
• 6 (a) Ethical Measures
• 6 (b) Descriptive Measures
• 7. Summary of Properties
• Decomposability, Transfer-Sensitivity?
• Summary

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III WELFARE AND INEQUALITY COMPARISONS OF
HOMOGENEOUS DISTRIBUTIONS
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IV WELFARE AND INEQUALITY COMPARISONS OF
HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTIONS

• The Problem
• Equivalence Scales and Variability in Household
  Size
• Inequality Welfare Comparisons Using
  Equivalence Scales Glewwes Paradox
• A General Formulation of the Glewwe paradox
  Symmetry vs Equity Shorrocks
• An Alternative Approach to Heterogeneity
  Atkinson Bourguignon
• Summary

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V SOME APPLICATIONS OF INEQUALITY ANALYSIS

• The Eloquence of a Summary statistic
• Evidence vs Impression An Example from Economic
  History
• Applications of the Lorenz Curve to Economic
  Analysis
• Inequality and Growth The Kuznets Hypothesis
• Between- and Within-Group Inequalities A
  First Example
• Between- and Within-Group Inequalities A
  Second Example
• Global Income Inequality
• Summary

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MEASURES OF INEQUALITY
Ethical Measures of Inequality
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Descriptive Measures of Inequality
1. The Variance(V)
2. The Variance of Log Incomes (Q)
3. The Squared Coefficient of Variation (S)
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4. Theils First Entropy Index (T)
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6. The Gini Coefficient (G)
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Theils Index
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Properties of Some Inequality Measures A Summary
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