Linear Measures, the Gini Index and the Income-Equality Tradeoff

Elchanan Ben-Porath () and Itzhak Gilboa

No 944, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: The paper provides an axiomatization of linear inequality measures as a representation of a binary relation on the subspace of income profiles having the same total income. Interpreting the binary relation as a preferences (of, say, a policymaker), we extend the axioms to the whole space of income profiles, and find that they characterize linear social evaluation functions. The axiomatiziation 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. In particular, we find that 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.

Date: 1991-07
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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 Trade-off (1994)
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