Abstract
Inequality poses significant threats to growth and development of economies. It is usually measured in terms of income or consumption, but the concept can be extended to cover many other dimensions of well-being. In Chap. 6, we examined inequality in different dimensions of well-being across Brazilian municipalities. Findings revealed that Brazil has improved outcomes related to material well-being, health, education, living conditions, and labor market activities, and has reduced disparities in these areas. Although a society’s ultimate objective should be to eliminate or reduce inequality of outcomes, the 2006 World Development Report has argued that it is equally important to focus on reducing inequalities that arise from unequal opportunity.
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- 1.
Quasi-concavity is a mathematical property of a function. u(x) is quasi-concave if and only if \( min\left(u(x), u(y)\right)\le u\left(\rho x+\left(1-\rho \right)y\right) \)for any\( \rho with 0<\rho <1 \)and for any vectors x and y. See Kakwani (1980) for detailed explanations.
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Kakwani, N., Son, H.H. (2016). Measuring Equity in Opportunity Using Social Opportunity Function. In: Social Welfare Functions and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58325-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58325-3_7
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