Classical inequality indices, welfare functions, and the dual decomposition

Oihana Aristondo (), José Luis García-Lapres (), Casilda Lasso de la Vega and Ricardo Alberto Marques Pereira ()
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José Luis García-Lapres: PRESAD Research Group, IMUVA, Universidad Valladolid
Ricardo Alberto Marques Pereira: Dipartimento di Informatica e Studi Aziendali, Universitμa degli Studi di Trento
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: José Luis García-Lapresta

No 253, Working Papers from ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality

Abstract: We consider the classical inequality measures due to Gini, Bonferroni, and De Vergottini and we present a brief review of the three inequality indices and the associated welfare functions, in the correspondence scheme introduced by Blackorby and Donaldson, and Weymark. The three classical inequality indices incorporate different value judgments in the measurement of inequality, leading to different behavior under income transfers between individuals in the population. The welfare functions associated with the Gini, Bonferroni, and (normalized) De Vergottini indices are Schur-concave OWA functions, with larger weights for lower incomes. We examine the dual decomposition and the orness degree of the three welfare functions in the standard framework of aggregation functions on the [0; 1]n domain, and show that it offers interesting insight on the distinct and complementary nature of the classical inequality indices.

Keywords: income inequality and social welfare; classical Gini; Bonferroni; and De Vergottini inequality indices; welfare functions; aggregation functions; WA and OWA functions; dual decomposition; ornessClassification-JEL: D63; I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2012-04
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Classical inequality indices, welfare functions, and the dual decomposition (2012)
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