Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 What is inequality? The economists' view
- 3 An investigative strategy
- 4 What is inequality? The students' view
- 5 Income and welfare
- 6 Income change
- 7 Poverty
- 8 A cross-cultural perspective
- 9 Thinking again about inequality
- Appendix A Inequality analysis: a summary of concepts and results
- Appendix B The questionnaires
- References
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 What is inequality? The economists' view
- 3 An investigative strategy
- 4 What is inequality? The students' view
- 5 Income and welfare
- 6 Income change
- 7 Poverty
- 8 A cross-cultural perspective
- 9 Thinking again about inequality
- Appendix A Inequality analysis: a summary of concepts and results
- Appendix B The questionnaires
- References
- Index
Summary
A look at inequality analysis
Thinking about inequality is not always a fashionable topic amongst economists. But thinking about inequality actually goes on all the time. Perceptions of inequality affect economic choices and political decisions. A sensitivity to inequality coupled with compassion for the poor motivates charitable giving by individuals and states. Notions about inequality appear to inform popular views about the appropriateness or otherwise of pay awards. And any parent with two or more children needs no formal analysis to be persuaded of the importance of distributive justice. Fashionable or not, thinking about inequality plays a part in the judgments and actions of politicians, planners and ordinary people.
Of course the study of economic inequality has not just been a matter of fashion. It has been an integral part of the general historical development of political economy and economics, and the approach to the topic has changed with the passage of time. While this is not the place for an extensive treatise on the history of economic thought about inequality, a brief sketch to introduce conventional wisdom on the subject may help to put into context what we want to tackle in this book.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thinking about InequalityPersonal Judgment and Income Distributions, pp. 1 - 7Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999