The evaluation of development processes and of public policies often involves comparisons of social states that differ in income distributions, population sizes and life longevity. This may require social evaluation principles to be sensitive to the quality, the quantity and the duration of...

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we develop the measurement theory of polarization for the case in which asset distributions can be described using density functions. Second, we provide sample estimators of population polarization indices that can be used to compare polarization...

This note provides simple tests for first-order bi-polarization orderings of distributions of living standards. In doing so, the paper also offers an ethical basis and an interpretation for the common use of some simple measures of distances from the median. Illustrations using Luxembourg Income...

What is freedom? What is equality? In which way can greater equality increase freedom? Such are the main questions which this paper tries to answer. The problem of the choice between freedom and equality indeed raises the problem of the definition of these two objects. Once this definition is...

This paper provides a method to make robust multidimensional poverty comparisons when one or more of the dimensions of well-being or deprivation is discrete. Sampling distributions for the statistics used in these poverty comparisons are provided. Several examples show that the methods are both...

This paper provides a method to make robust multidimensional poverty comparisons when one or more of the dimensions of well-being or deprivation is discrete. Sampling distributions for the statistics used in these poverty comparisons are provided. Several examples show that the methods are both...

This paper examines multidimensional stochastic dominance when one of the indicators of well-being, such as household size or place of residence, is qualitative. It also uses a test for strict dominance based on the empirical likelihood ratio. Empirical applications are based on the DHS...

The impact of growth on the distribution of income or consumption is regularly debated at both the scientific and policy levels. Within the micro-oriented literature dedicated to growth pro-poorness evaluation issues, the focus is specifically on the poverty impacts of growth. Considering a...