Ethical Social Index Numbers
In this book we are concerned with income profile based ethical social index numbers. An ethical index is designed from an explicit social evaluation function with a specific purpose in mind. For example, an ethical relative inequality index determines th
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Ethical Social Index Numbers With 14 Figures
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Professor Satya R. Chakravarty Institut fur Wirtschaftstheorie und OR Universitat Karlsruhe KaiserstraBe 12 D-7500 Karlsruhe, FRG Economic Research Unit Indian Statistical Institute 203 B. T .Road Calcutta, 700035 India
ISBN-13: 978-3-642-75504-0 e-ISNB-13: 978-3-642-75502-6 DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-75502-6 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse ofillustrati on, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication ofthis publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9,1965, in its version of June 24, 1985, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Violations fall under the prosecution act of the German Copyright Law. © Springer-Verlag Berlin· Heidelberg 1990 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990
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To my son Ananyo and nephews Gaurav and Saurav
Preface In this book we are concerned with income profile based ethical social index numbers. An ethical index is designed from an explicit social evaluation function with a specific purpose in mind. For example, an ethical relative inequality index determines the fraction of total income that could be saved without any welfare loss if society distributed incomes equally. Ethical indices contrast with descriptive indices which are derived without using any concept of social welfare. Needless to say, ethical indices are not meant to supplant descriptive indices, rather they are constructed with different aims. We begin Chapter 1 with a formal discussion on the concept of a social evaluation function. In the main body of this chapter we consider the problem of ranking income profiles using a social evaluation function. In Chapter 2 we set about analyzing alternative approaches to the measurement of inequality. In Chapter 3 we focus our attention on the Gini index, the most frequently used index of inequality, and its extensions. In Chapter 4 we formulate the notion of an ethical distance function that measures welfare of one population relative to another. Chapter 5 is devoted to quantifications and discussions of alternative definitions of relative deprivation put forward by Runciman(1966). In Chapter 6 we discuss alternative approaches to the measurement of poverty. Chapter 7 makes a detailed discussion on poverty indices which possess an attractive aggregation property. Such indices are helpful in identifying causal factors of poverty and in formulati
