Sequential Generalized Lorenz Dominance and Transfer Principles.

In an important contribution in 1987, Atkinson and Bourguignon proposed dominance criteria which allow us to compare income distributions for heterogeneous populations. They are defined by the unanimous preference of the dominating distribution by a set of welfare functions which satisfy some conditions on the derivatives of utility-of-income functions. This paper contributes to an understanding of some of the orderings considered. In particular it provides a characterization of the sequential generalized Lorenz ordering by transfer principles. The axiomatization illuminates the criterion. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the Board of Trustees of the Bulletin of Economic Research