An Atkinson-Gini family of social evaluation functions

Araar Abdelkrim () and Jean-Yves Duclos ()

Economics Bulletin, 2003, vol. 3, issue 19, pages 1-16

Abstract: We investigate the properties of a family of social evaluation functions and inequality indices which merge the features of the family of Atkinson (1970) and S-Gini (Donaldson and Weymark (1980, 1983), Yitzhaki (1983) and Kakwani (1980)) indices. Income inequality aversion is captured by decreasing marginal utilities, and aversion to rank inequality is captured by rank-dependent ethical weights, thus providing an ethically-flexible dual basis for the assessment of inequality and equity. These social evaluation functions can be interpreted as average utility corrected for the illfare of relative deprivation. They can alternatively be understood as averages of altruistic well-being in a population. They moreover have a simple graphical interpretation.

Keywords: altruism.; inequality; relative deprivation; Social evaluation functions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C6 D3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-07-28
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Related works:
Working Paper: An Atkinson-Gini Family of Social Evaluation Functions (2001)
Working Paper: An Atkinson-Gini Family of Social Evaluation Functions (1998)
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