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Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Yoram Amiel, Frank Cowell and Dan Slottje

We run income inequality questionnaire in 17 universities in the USA. In the questionnaire we examine how students of economics compare inequality of income distributions, when…

Abstract

We run income inequality questionnaire in 17 universities in the USA. In the questionnaire we examine how students of economics compare inequality of income distributions, when transfers are made between income recipients. The results are analysed in terms of several personal characteristics of the respondents: family income, ethnicity, sex, geographic origin, number of siblings, age, and by ranking of the universities.

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Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Frank Cowell

The emerging literature on experimental methods in connection with economic inequality has shed fresh light on how to think about inequality, how important issues of equality are…

Abstract

The emerging literature on experimental methods in connection with economic inequality has shed fresh light on how to think about inequality, how important issues of equality are in comparison with other economic objectives and how individuals incorporate criteria of equality and fairness into their own decisions.

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Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

Book part
Publication date: 15 December 2004

Frank A. Cowell and Guillermo Cruces

This paper analyses the principles underlying the theories of risk and inequality, and the connections between the two. Using two experimental designs, we investigate the…

Abstract

This paper analyses the principles underlying the theories of risk and inequality, and the connections between the two. Using two experimental designs, we investigate the structure of individuals’ rankings of uncertain prospects in terms of risk and inequality. We examine these individual perceptions in the light of the conventional principles underlying risk and inequality. We show that, although the principle of mean-preserving spreads and the principle of transfers are often rejected a weaker principle, “lowest-to-highest” is usually supported.

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Studies on Economic Well-Being: Essays in the Honor of John P. Formby
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-136-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 May 2007

Yoram Amiel and Frank Cowell

We examine individuals' distributional orderings in situations involving (a) comparisons of social welfare and (b) choice under uncertainty. There is a special focus on whether…

Abstract

We examine individuals' distributional orderings in situations involving (a) comparisons of social welfare and (b) choice under uncertainty. There is a special focus on whether these orderings satisfy the principle of transfers (the principle of mean-preserving spreads). The results are compared with those of earlier work that was conducted in the context of inequality and of risk.

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Inequality and Poverty
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1374-7

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2021

Frank A. Cowell and Emmanuel Flachaire

In the case of ordered categorical data, the concepts of minimum and maximum inequality are not straightforward. In this chapter, the authors consider the Cowell and Flachaire…

Abstract

In the case of ordered categorical data, the concepts of minimum and maximum inequality are not straightforward. In this chapter, the authors consider the Cowell and Flachaire (2017) indices of inequality. The authors show that the minimum and maximum inequality depend on preliminary choices made before using these indices, on status and the sensitivity parameter. Specifically, maximum inequality can be given by the distribution which is the most concentrated in the top or bottom category, or by the uniform distribution.

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Research on Economic Inequality: Poverty, Inequality and Shocks
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-558-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Abstract

Details

Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Abstract

Details

Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

Book part
Publication date: 30 December 2013

Joan Costa Font and Frank Cowell

Much of the theoretical literature on inequality assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal variable like income or wealth. However, health status is generally measured as a…

Abstract

Much of the theoretical literature on inequality assumes that the equalisand is a cardinal variable like income or wealth. However, health status is generally measured as a categorical variable expressing a qualitative order. Traditional solutions involve reclassifying the variable by means of qualitative models and relying on inequality measures that are mean independent. We argue that the way status is conceptualised has important theoretical implications for measurement as well as for policy analysis. We also bring to the data a recently proposed approach to measuring self-reported health inequality that meets both rigorous and practical considerations. We draw upon the World Health Survey data to examine alternative pragmatic methods for making health-inequality comparisons. Findings suggest significant differences in health-inequality measurement and that regional and country patterns of inequality orderings do not coincide with any reasonable categorisation of countries by health system organisation.

Book part
Publication date: 28 December 2018

Frank A. Cowell, Dirk Van de gaer and Chang He

It is well known that taxes on the transfer of wealth typically raise very little revenue. However, this does not mean that they are ineffective as tools for redistribution. In…

Abstract

It is well known that taxes on the transfer of wealth typically raise very little revenue. However, this does not mean that they are ineffective as tools for redistribution. In this chapter, we show how important such taxes can be in the long-run distribution of wealth, reducing equilibrium inequality (the “predistribution” effect) by a much larger amount than what is apparent in terms of the immediate impact of the tax (the “redistribution” effect).

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Inequality, Taxation and Intergenerational Transmission
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-458-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 14 July 2004

Kristof Bosmans and Erik Schokkaert

We present the results of a questionnaire study with Belgian undergraduate students as respondents. We consider the relationship between people’s direct ethical preferences, their…

Abstract

We present the results of a questionnaire study with Belgian undergraduate students as respondents. We consider the relationship between people’s direct ethical preferences, their preferences behind a veil of ignorance, and their purely individual risk preferences over income distributions. The results reveal that, although there are important similarities between the three types of preferences, the first and third types form two extremes, while the second type lies in between the other two. Consistency of response patterns with the expected utility (EU) and rank-dependent expected utility (RDEU) models – natural analogues of the social welfare functions most frequently used in the literature on inequality and social welfare – is tested as well. For all three types of preferences the results reveal that, in the considered context, the RDEU model does not add explanatory power to the EU model. However, preferences appear to be relatively well described by some of the basic concepts from non-expected utility theory not usually considered in the income distribution literature.

Details

Inequality, Welfare and Income Distribution: Experimental Approaches
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-113-2

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