What Is Social Inequality and Why Does it Matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

Chiara Binelli, Matthew Loveless and Stephen Whitefield

World Development, 2015, vol. 70, issue C, 239-248

Abstract: As distinct from income or wealth inequality, ‘social inequality’ is currently poorly understood and, at best, unevenly measured. We conceptualize social inequality as the relative position of individuals along a number of dimensions that measure achieved outcomes and, innovatively, expectations about future outcomes. Using data from 12 Central and Eastern European countries, we find that cross-national patterns of social inequality differ significantly from patterns derived from income inequality measures. Moreover, our measure of social inequality is much better correlated than income inequality with other country differences such as higher levels of economic performance and human development, and stronger political institutions.

Keywords: social and income inequality; capabilities; measurement; Central and Eastern Europe; human development; political institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:70:y:2015:i:c:p:239-248

DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.007

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