Abstract
The research on the theory of income inequality measurement began towards the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of that early research discussed statistical tools of measurement. One of the exceptions was the work of (1920) who discussed measurement from a social welfare point of view. The subjective approach, which is the subject of this chapter, is in fact related to this social welfare approach as is most of the more recent research on the measurement of income inequality, which began more than 25 years ago (see Atkinson 1970; Kolm, 1969; Sen, 1973).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1992. “Measurement of Income Inequality: Experimental Test by Questionnaire.” Journal of Public Economics 47: 3–26.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1994a. “Inequality Changes and Income Growth.” In W. Eichhorn, ed., Models and Measurement of Welfare and Inequality. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pp. 3–26.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1994b. “Income Inequality and Social Welfare.” In J. Greedy, ed., Taxation, Poverty and Income Distribution. Edward Elgar, pp. 193–219.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1995, “Income Transformation and Income Inequality.” Discussion paper. STICERD, London School of Economics.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1996. “Distributional Orderings and the Transfer Principle: A Re-examination.” Discussion paper, STICERD, London School of Economics.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. 1997. “The Measurement of Poverty: An Experimental Questionnaire Investigation.” Empirical Economics 22: 571–588.
Amiel, Y. and F.A. Cowell. Forthcoming. “Poverty Perceptions and the Poverty Line.” In S.P. Jenkins, A. Kapteyn, A. and B. van Praag, B., eds., Distribution of Welfare and Household Production: An International Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
Amiel Y., J. Greedy and S. Hum. 1998. “Measuring Inequality Aversion.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
Atkinson, A.B. 1970. “On the Measurement of Inequality.” Journal of Economic Theory 2: 244.
Atkinson, A.B. 1987. “On the Measurement of Poverty.” Econometrica 55: 749–764.
Ballano. C. and J. Ruiz-Castillo, J. 1992. “Searching by Questionnaire for the Meaning of Income Inequality.” Working paper 92-43, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departamento de Economía.
Beckman, S., D. Cheng, J.P. Formby and J.W. Smith. 1994. “Preferences for Income Distributions and Redistributions: Evidence from Experiments with Real Income at Stake.” Mimeo, University of Alabama.
Beckman, S. and J.W. Smith. 1994. “Efficiency, Equity and Democracy: Experimental Evidence on Okun’s Leaky Bucket.” Mimeo, University of Colorado at Denver.
Bernasconi, M. 1994. “How Should Income be Divided? Questionnaire Evidence From the Theory of ‘The Veil of Ignorance’.” Mimeo, Universita di Pavia.
Bossert, W. and A. Pfingsten. 1990. “Intermediate Inequality: Concepts, Indices and Welfare Implications.” Mathematical Social Science 19: 117–134.
Buyze, J. 1982. “The Estimation of Welfare Levels of a Cardinal Utility Function.” European Economic Review 17: 325–332.
Colasanto, D., A. Kapteyn and J. van der Gaag. 1984. “Two Subjective Definitions of Poverty: Results from the Wisconsin Basic Needs Study.” The Journal of Human Resources 19: 127–138.
Cowell, F.A. (1985) “‘A Fair Suck of the Sauce Bottle’ or What do You Mean by Inequality?” Economic Record 6: 567–579.
Dalton, H. 1920. “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes.” Economic Journal 30: 348–361.
Foster, J.E. 1984. “On Economic Poverty: A Survey of Aggregate Measures.” Advances in Econometrics 3: 215–251.
Gevers, L., H. Glejser and J. Rouyer. 1979. “Professed Inequality Aversion and its Error Component.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics 81: 238–243.
Glejser, H., L. Gevers, Ph. Lambot and J.A. Morales J.A. 1977. “An Econometric Study of the Variables Determining Inequality Aversion among Students.” European Economic Review 10: 173–188.
Goedhart, T., V. Halberstadt, A. Kapteyn, and B.M.S. van Praag. 1977. “The Poverty Line: Concept and Measurement.” The Journal of Human Resources 12: 503–520.
Hagenaars, A.J.M. 1986. The Perception of Poverty. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Hagenaars, A.J.M. and B.M.S. van Praag. 1985. “A Synthesis of Poverty Line Definitions.” Review of Income and Wealth 31: 139–153.
Harrison, E. and Ch. Seidl. 1994a. “Acceptance of Distributional Axioms: Experimental Findings.” In W. Eichhorn, W., ed., Models and Measurement of Welfare and Inequality. Berlin: Springer Verlag, 67–99.
Harrison, E. and Ch. Seidl. 1994b. “Perceptional Inequality and Preferential Judgements: An Empirical Examination of Distributional Judgments.” Public Choice 19: 61–81.
van Herwaarden, F. and A. Kapteyn. 1981. “Empirical Comparison of the Shape of Welfare Functions.” European Economic Review 15: 261–268.
van Herwaarden, F., A. Kapteyn and B.M.S van Praag. 1977. “Twelve Thousand Individual Welfare Functions.” European Economic Review 9: 283–300.
Kapteyn, A. and F.G. van Herwaarden. 1980. “Interdependent Welfare Function and Optimal Income Distributions.” Journal of Public Economic 14: 375–397.
Kapteyn, A. and B.M.S. van Praag. 1976. “A New Approach to the Construction of Family Equivalence Scales.” European Economic Review 7: 313–335.
Kapteyn, A. and Wänsbeek, T. 1985a, “The Individual Welfare Function — A Review.” Journal of Economic Psychology 6: 333–363.
Kapteyn, A. and T. Wänsbeek. 1985b. “The Individual Welfare Function — A Rejoinder.” Journal of Economic Psychology 6: 375–381.
Kolm, S.-Ch. 1969. “The Optimal Production of Social Justice.” In J. Margolis, J. and H. Guitton, H., eds., Public Economics. London: Macmillan.
Kolm, S.-Ch. 1976a. “Unequal Inequalities I.” Journal of Economic Theory 12: 416–442.
Kolm, S.-Ch. 1976b. “Unequal Inequalities II.” Journal of Economic Theory 13: 82–111.
Kolm, S.-Ch. 1996. “Intermediate Measure of Inequality.” Mimeo.
McClelland, G. and J. Rohrbaugh. 1978. “Who Accepts the Pareto Axiom? The Role of Utility and Equity in Arbitration Decisions.” Behavioural Science 23: 446–456.
Pfingsten, A. 1988. “Empirical Investigation of Inequality Concepts: A Method and First Results.” Mimeo, Karlsruhe University.
van Praag, B.M.S. 1968. Individual Welfare Functions and Consumer Behavior. Amsterdam: North Holland.
van Praag, B.M.S. 1971. “The Welfare Function of Income in Belgium: An Empirical Investigation.” European Economic Review 2: 337–369.
van Praag, B.M.S., 1977. “The Perception of Welfare Inequality.” European Economic Review 10: 189–207.
van Praag, B.M.S. 1978. “The Perception of Income Inequality.” In W. Krelle and A.F. Shorrocks, eds., Personal Income Distribution. Amsterdam: North Holland.
van Praag, B.M.S. 1985. “Linking Economics with Psychology — An Economist View.” Journal of Economic Psychology 6: 289–311.
van Praag, B.M.S., T. Goedhart and A. Kapteyn. 1980. “The Poverty Line — A Pilot Survey in Europe.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 62: 461–465.
van Praag, B.M.S. and A. Kapteyn, A. 1973. “Further Evidence of the Individual Welfare Function of Income: An Empirical Investigation in The Netherlands.” European Economic Review 4: 33–62.
van Praag, B.M.S., A. Kapteyn, A. and F.G. van Herwaarden. 1978. “The Individual Welfare Function of Income — A Lognormal Distribution Function.” European Economic Review 11: 395–402.
Ratchford, B.T. 1985. “The Individual Welfare Function — A Comment.” Journal of Economic Psychology 6: 365–374.
Seidl, C. 1988. “Poverty Measurement: A Survey.” In Bös D., M. Rose and C. Seidl, eds., Welfare and Efficiency in Public Economics. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Sen, A.K. 1973. On Economic Inequality. London: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A.K. 1976. “Poverty: An Ordinal Approach to Measurement.” Econometrica 44: 219–231.
Stanovink, T. 1992. “Perception of Poverty and Income Satisfaction — An Empirical Analysis of Slovene Households.” Journal of Economic Psychology 13: 57–69.
Temkin, L.S. 1986. “Inequality.” Philosophy and Public Affairs, 99–124.
Temkin, L.S. 1993. Inequality. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
de Vos, K. and T.I. Garner. 1991. “An Evaluation of Subjective Poverty Definitions: Comparing Results from the US and The Netherlands.” Review of Income and Wealth 37: 267–286.
Wänsbeek, T. and A. Kapteyn. 1983. “Tackling Hard Questions by Means of Soft Methods: The Use of Individual Welfare Functions in Socio-economic Policy.” Kyklos 36: 249–269.
Wierenga, B. 1978. “The Individual Welfare Function of Income: A Lognormal Distribution Function?” European Economic Review 11: 387–393.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amiel, Y. (1999). The Measurement of Income Inequality: The Subjective Approach. In: Silber, J. (eds) Handbook of Income Inequality Measurement. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 71. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4413-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4413-1_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-5897-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4413-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive