Abstract
Underlying economic enquiry into distribution is the idea that inequality is bad because it diminishes the total welfare of the society. But with few exceptions the inequality referred to is income inequality. As Sen (1992, p2) observed, inequality may occur in a wide range of spaces: wealth, income, happiness, liberty, opportunities, rights, or need-fulfilment. A crucial issue is the choice of space, and proponents of equality in some spaces will conflict with those arguing for equality in other spaces.1 The judgement and measurement of inequality depends on the ‘focal’ variable chosen and the relative appropriateness of the different spaces depends on the motivation of the exercise of inequality evaluation.
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Johnson, D.T. (1996). Indexes of Inequality. In: Poverty, Inequality and Social Welfare in Australia. Contributions to Economics. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12729-2_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-12729-2_7
Publisher Name: Physica, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-0942-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-12729-2
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