TY - JOUR T1 - Linear Measures, the Gini Index and the Income-Equality Tradeoff JF - Journal of Economic Theory Y1 - 1994 A1 - Elchanan Ben-Porath A1 - Itzhak Gilboa AB -

Linear Measures, the Gini Index and the Income-Equality Tradeoff

with I. Gilboa

This paper provides an axiomatization of linear inequality measures representing binary relations on the subspace of income profiles having identical total income. Interpreting the binary relation as a policymaker's preference, we extend the axioms to the whole space and find that they characterize linear social evaluation functions. The axiomatization seems to suggest that a policymaker who has a linear measure of inequality on a subspace should have a linear evaluation on the whole space. An extension of the preferences reflected in the Gini index to the whole space is represented by a linear combination of total income and the Gini index. Journal of Economic Literature Classification numbers: D30, D31, D60, D63, D81

VL - 64 ER -