Equity and Equality

Jean-Yves Duclos ()

No 2284, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Abstract: Is horizontal equity (HE) the "most widely accepted principle of equity"? Or does it stand in "opposition to the advancement of human welfare"? This paper argues that the case for the HE principle is not as straightforward as is usually thought and that it requires advanced notions of justice and wellbeing. The most likely ethical basis for HE appears to combine a Rawlsian maximin principle and a view of well-being that allows for relative local comparison effects. The paper also explores some of the dimensions of equality and well-being along which the HE principle can be applied and presents a number of examples showing how HE considerations can provide an important input into policy analysis.

Keywords: horizontal equity; vertical equity; redistribution; equality; social justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D60 D63 I30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-ltv
Date: 2006-09
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://repec.iza.org/RePEc/Discussionpaper/dp2284.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Equity and Equality (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2284

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Address: IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Mark Fallak ().