Measuring Inequality: Pareto's Ambiguous Contribution

Terenzio Maccabelli

History of Political Economy, 2009, vol. 41, issue 1, 183-208

Abstract: Pareto was probably the first economist to suggest a way of measuring the inequality of incomes. But the interpretation of his index α came to be an object of contrasting judgments. This paper offers a reconstruction of the debate that involved Pareto's index, aimed at clarifying his thought on the question. The thesis is that Pareto has not made any contribution to the criteria for measuring inequality and, as such, has to be evaluated using other parameters.

Keywords: Pareto; inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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