search query: @indexterm social welfare / total: 200
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| Author: | Podder, N. |
| Title: | Relative deprivation, envy and economic inequality |
| Journal: | Kyklos
1996 : VOL. 49:3, p. 353-376 |
| Index terms: | SOCIAL WELFARE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH INEQUALITY CONFLICT INCOME DISTRIBUTION |
| Language: | eng |
| Abstract: | Most economists identified the sociological concept of relative deprivation with the economic concept of income inequality. In the present paper the author has demonstrated that the two concpts differ in a significant way. Relative deprivation is shown to be a non-linear and non-monotonic function of any measure of inequality. As a result, a high degree of economic inequality may correspond to a low degree of relative deprivation. While a small transfer of income from rich to poor alwalsy reduces inequality it may, in fact, increase relative deprivation. Thus, the latter concept violates the so called Pigou-Dalton condition. The similar situation may be observed in the economic measurement of envy. Thus, the concept of relative deprivation is identified with a special case of the concept of envy. |
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