Abstract.
Temkin (1986, 1993) set out a philosophical basis for the analysis of income inequality that provides an important alternative to the mainstream welfarist approach. We show that the Temkin principles can be characterised by a parsimonious axiomatic structure and we use this structure to derive a new class of inequality indices and an inequality ordering. This class of indices has a family relationship to well-known measures of inequality, deprivation and poverty. The ordering is shown to have properties analogous to second-order dominance results.
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We would like to acknowledge financial support by the Training and Mobility of Researchers Programme of the European Communities, grant #ERBFMRXC T980248 (Living Standards, Inequality and Taxation), and to thank STICERD for hosting Ebert in order to facilitate our collaboration. Ralph Bayer helped greatly in preparation of the figures. We are grateful for comments from Yoram Amiel, Kurt Devooght and Alain Trannoy and from participants at workshops in Warwick, Bocconi, the LSE and Venice. We also wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of the referees of this journal.
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Cowell, F., Ebert, U. Complaints and inequality. Soc Choice Welfare 23, 71–89 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-003-0237-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-003-0237-7