Revisiting an Old Theme in the Measurement of Inequality and Poverty

S. Subramanian ()
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S. Subramanian: Independent Scholar

Chapter Chapter 14 in Social Values and Social Indicators, 2021, pp 179-188 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This essay subjects to criticism the dominant convention in the inequality-measurement and poverty-measurement literature of employing wholly ‘relative’ indices, and advocates, instead, the routine use of ‘centrist’ measures. In the process, the paper revisits some old debates on the logical adequacy and normative appeal of measures of inequality and poverty that are either wholly relative or wholly absolute. The implication of these issues for the diagnosis of magnitudes and trends in inequality and poverty is illustrated by means of a couple of simple empirical examples drawn from Indian data.

Keywords: Poverty; Inequality; Relative indices; Absolute indices; Centrist indices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:thechp:978-981-16-0428-7_14

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-0428-7_14

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