This chapter investigates recent advances in our understanding of the global distribution of income, and produces the first estimates of global inequality that take into account data on the incomes of the top one percent within countries. We discuss conceptual and methodological issues –...

Like the other chapters in this volume of the Handbook of Income Distribution (and its predecessor), the aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of a particular area of research. We examine the literature on post-1970 trends in poverty and income inequality, up to 2010 or 2011...

This chapter examines different approaches to the measurement of multidimensional inequality and poverty. It first outlines three aspects preliminary to any multidimensional study: the selection of the relevant dimensions, the indicators used to measure them, and the procedures for their...

In general, there seems to be a basic consensus on how to measure poverty and inequality. For this reason there is a general agreement with respect to their levels and evolution over time, with respect to Chile and also to the city of Santiago. However, there is no such agreement with respect to...

This essay outlines the exact definition of “Equality” and “Inequality” in economics. The discussion moves forward to review concepts of ranking of orderings and methodology of constructing Indices of Inequality with an emphasis on Lorenz Orderings. We also discuss the possibility of...

Despite the formal rigour that attends social and economic measurement, the substantive meaning of particular measures could be compromised in the absence of a clear and coherent conceptualization of the phenomenon being measured. A case in point is afforded by the status of a focus axiom in the...

Aphorisms that "Rising tides raise all boats" or that material advances of the rich eventually "Trickle Down" to the poor are really maxims regarding the nature of stochastic processes that underlay the income/wellbeing paths of groups of individuals. This paper looks at the implications for the...

This paper proposes two new indices of relative deprivation, derived from an extension of the concept of generalized Gini to the measurement of distributional change. Population- and income-weighted relative deprivation indices are then defined and, using panel data from the Consortium of...

The paper provides the axiomatic characterization of a new poverty measure, the path-dependent poverty index. This is a two period index taking into account not only individuals current and past deprivation levels, but also the relative position with respect to their previous income status....

This paper uses sequential stochastic dominance procedures to compare the joint distribution of health and income across space and time. It is the first application of which we are aware of methods to compare multidimensional distributions of income and health using procedures that are robust to...