The Measurement and Trend of Inequality: Comment
1977; American Economic Association; Volume: 67; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1944-7981
Autores Tópico(s)Income, Poverty, and Inequality
ResumoMorton Paglin's recent article in this Review is an important contribution to the analysis of the distribution of income. He argues convincingly that inequality of incomes on a life cycle basis would exist even in a perfectly equalitarian society. He then provides a clear and simple technique by which inequality in excess of that related to the age-income profile can be measured. Paglin finds that on this basis the degree of inequality in the distribution of income fell significantly over the quarter century from 1947 to 1972; that is, the difference between the actual distribution and that which would have obtained if each family received the mean income for its age group decreased. Paglin's conceptual approach is a meaningful improvement over consideration of Gini coefficients without reference to underlying population change. At the same time, the Paglin technique raises further questions which shadow his conclusions on the trend of inequality. The objective of this comment is to discuss some of these questions and suggest alternative applications of the technique; the results will indicate that Paglin's technique must be used with caution for conclusions regarding the trend of inequality to be fairly drawn. The remainder of the comment will be divided into three sections. The first will consider Paglin's selection of the age-income profile as a measure of permissible income inequality. The second will examine the distribution of total family income as an indicator of equality. The third section will be a brief conclusion.
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