Linear Measures, the Gini Index, and The Income-Equality Trade-off

Itzhak Gilboa and Elchanan Ben Porath
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Elchanan Ben Porath: Northwestern University [Evanston], TAU - Tel Aviv University

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Abstract: This paper provides an axiomatization of linear inequality measures representing binary relations on the subspace of income profiles having identical total income. Interpreting the binary relation as a policymaker′s preference, we extend the axioms to the whole space and find that they characterize linear social evaluation functions. The axiomatization seems to suggest that a policymaker who has a linear measure of inequality on a subspace should have a linear evaluation on the whole space. An extension of the preferences reflected in the Gini index to the whole space is represented by a linear combination of total income and the Gini index.

Keywords: Microeconomic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-12-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (42)

Published in Journal of Economic Theory, 1994, Vol.64, n°2, pp.443-467. ⟨10.1006/jeth.1994.1076⟩

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Related works:
Journal Article: Linear Measures, the Gini Index, and The Income-Equality Trade-off (1994)
Working Paper: Linear Measures, the Gini Index and the Income-Equality Tradeoff (1991)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00481365

DOI: 10.1006/jeth.1994.1076

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