Economic aspects of regional welfare : Income distribution and unemployment
by C. P. A. Bartels
Content -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1. Study of welfare aspects in economics -- 1.2. Disparities in regional welfare -- 1.3. Selection of regional welfare elements -- 1.4. Methods -- 1.5. Layout -- 2. Statistical and Related Income Inequality Measures, With No Explicit Specification of a Probability Density- or Welfare-Function -- 2.1. The concept of an inequality measure -- 2.2. Notations -- 2.3. Statistical and other non-welfare-based inequality measures with an unspecified p.d.f. -- 2.4. A partial evaluation of statistical and related inequality measures -- Appendix 2A. Elementary definitions -- Appendix 2B. Partial statistical indicators of dispersion -- Appendix 2C. Decomposition formulae -- 3. Explicit Probability Density Functions of Income -- 3.1. The usefulness of an explicit probability density function of income -- 3.2. Alternative approaches and selection criteria for defining a set of p.d.f.s -- 3.3. A direct definition of a skew p.d.f. of income -- 3.4. A definition of a skew p.d.f. of income using transformations -- 3.5. A preliminary evaluation of some p.d.f.s -- 3.7. Aspects of goodness of fit -- 3.8. Concluding remarks -- Appendix 3A. The Pareto distribution -- 4. Income Inequality Measures and Welfare Functions of Income -- 4.1. The use of a welfare function of income -- 4.2. A partial group welfare function of incomes -- 4.3. An additive individualistic welfare approach to income inequality measurement -- 4.4. Non-additivity of individual welfare levels and inequality measurement -- 4.5. An evaluation of the welfare approach -- 5. Inequality Measures with Explicit Statements on Weights and Reference Distribution -- 5.1. Introduction -- 5.2. Specification of a target income distribution -- 5.3. Indices of divergence from a target distribution -- 5.4. Relevance of the approach -- 6. Intra-Regional Income Distributions in the Netherlands -- 6.1. Introduction -- 6.2. Personal income data for COROP regions -- 6.3. Some location parameters for intra-regional income distributions -- 6.4. Inequality measures for intra-regional income distributions: some general remarks -- 6.5. Statistical and related inequality measures: empirical results -- 6.6. Inequality measures based on a welfare function: empirical results -- 6.7. Selection of a p.d.f. of income: empirical results -- 6.8. Associations between inequality measures: empirical results -- 6.9. Selection of attractive inequality measures -- 6.10. Interpretations of results of inequality measures -- Appendix 6A. Definition of taxable income 1969 -- 7. An Exploratory Statistical Analysis of Regional Unemployment -- 7.1. Indicators of unemployment as elements of the regional welfare profile -- 7.2. Unemployment data and concepts -- 7.3. Statistical assumptions -- 7.4. An elementary statistical analysis -- 7.5. Auto-spectral analysis -- 7.6. Cross-spectral analysis -- 7.7. Principal components analysis of the spectral estimates -- 7.8. Evaluation of the results -- 8. Variables Associated with Intra-Regional Income Distributions -- 8.1. An empirical analysis of associated variables -- 8.2. Variables influencing personal incomes -- 8.3. Economic theories to explain personal incomes -- 8.4. Estimation of a relation for the level of regional income -- 8.5. Estimation of a relation for intra-regional income inequality -- 8.6. An attempt to reveal implicit social norms simultaneously -- 8.7. Some final remarks -- Appendix 8A. Data on selected intra-regional variables -- 9. An Explanatory Model of Labour Market and Income Distribution -- 9.1. Integration of welfare elements in a comprehensive framework -- 9.2. Specification of labour market relations -- 9.2.1. Demand for labour -- 9.2.2. Labour supply -- 9.2.3. Discrepancies on the labour market -- 9.3. Regional income and its distribution -- 9.4. The availability of data -- 9.5. Some final remarks.