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This paper discusses inequality orderings based explicitly on closing up of income gaps, demonstrating the links between these and other orderings, the classes of functions preserving the orderings and applications showing their usefulness in comparison of economic policies.

In this paper, we study attitudinal responses of host country residents towards further immigration that are triggered by economic considerations. We develop an economic model motivating the empirical work that takes a broader view on these issues than previous papers. We provide empirical analysis that is based on data more specific and better suited to pick up the many channels of economic interest through which benefits and costs of immigration may be felt. Results support previous literature in establishing strong associations between individual characteristics and a wide range of responses to questions relating to perceived impact of immigrants on economic outcomes. Our analysis points towards harmful effects of immigration on the economy being felt through immigration being a fiscal burden rather than having adverse effects on the labour market.

For equity, societies may wish to eliminate certain forms or manifestations of inequality. Horizontal equity and vertical equity in the income tax are topics which have interested me for some years. Although any shortfall from each of these objectives can be measured in terms of unwanted inequalities, equity per se is a different concept from equality. Equity relates to fairness, justice and other societal norms which give expression to the best aspirations of our collective social conscience. For example, equal access to health care for those in equal need is an accepted norm for horizontal equity in the health field. Vertical equity in this context means treating appropriately differently those who have different needs. When offered the opportunity to be Guest Editor of this volume of Research on Economic Inequality, I decided to define the focus simply as “equity”, without placing any further restriction on topics. The papers which were ultimately included in this volume are the ones, from among those offered, which survived a rigorous refereeing process. Each has its own “take” on the concept of equity, and its link with equality. I hope that you, the reader, will gain from reading all of these contributions and pondering their significance.

This volume is a collection of papers first presented at a conference held in June 2004 dedicated to the memory of the late Tikva Lecker, hosted by Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, and co-sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago. A warm and lively member of the Department of Economics at Bar Ilan University, Professor Lecker's many interests included topics in labor economics, women and the economy, the economics of Judaism, the economics of migration, and every aspect of the economic experience of immigrants and their descendants.

This chapter reviews railways with respect to their organisation, regulation and ownership, with particular reference to the reforms undertaken in Great Britain in the mid-1990s. First, with respect to organisation, railways constitute a complex industry that has tended to be dominated by integrated monoliths, often organised hierarchically and reliant on governance by command and control. More recently, countries such as Great Britain have experimented with more fragmented, atomistic structures reliant on governance by contract. Second, since their inception, railways have attracted regulation in terms of varying degrees of public control of fares, service quantity and quality, safety and rates of return. More recently, there has been an emphasis on pro-competition policies with respect to open access services (on the tracks competition) and franchising/concessions (off the tracks competition). Third, in terms of ownership, although many railways originated as private companies, a series of nationalisations meant that by the mid-1990s, most were in public ownership, although there have since been a number of privatisations and experiments with public–private partnerships. The focus of these changes has been mainly on the economic performance of the railways, with relatively little emphasis on social and environmental factors. Where sustainability has been considered, it has been mainly terms of determining organisational and financial structures that can last, with the search for such sustainable structures a continuing process.