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Oslo Summer School in Comparative Social Science Studies 2008

Inequality, Welfare and Redistribution

Lecturer: Professor Peter J. Lambert,
Department of Economics,
University of Oregon, USA

Main disciplines: Economics, Sociology

Dates: 28 July - 1 August 2008
Course Credits: 10 pts (ECTS)
Limitation: 30 participants


Objectives
In this short course, ideally suited to Ph.D. students and interested faculty, I will examine the measurement theory and inherent value judgements used to make inequality, welfare and poverty comparisons of income distributions, and to assess the extent and nature of redistribution which is implicit or explicit in an income tax system. The course draws on recent literature from the distinct traditions of welfare economics, social policy analysis and public finance, using a consistent approach. By the end, participants will be able to read widely in a quite specialist measurement literature, and know enough to structure and undertake advanced empirical investigations into distributional questions.

The course will be taught over 5 days by means of two daily 1½-hour meetings. The lectures will be delivered using OHP slides containing the material that will also be given to the participants as printed handouts. The course text will be Lambert, P.J. (2001) The Distribution and Redistribution of Income (3rd edition), Manchester University Press. The lecture outline is as follows, including reference to the chapters/sections of the course text that will be covered in each lecture.


Essential Book to Purchase and Read

  • Lambert, P.J. (2001) The Distribution and Redistribution of Income (3rd edition), Manchester University Press
  • Sen, A. (1997) On Economic Inequality, expanded edition. Oxford: University Press. With an Annexe: On Economic Inequality after a Quarter Century (co-author J. Foster).

Other Books: recommended preparation for the course

  • Cowell, F.A. (1995). Measuring Inequality (2nd edition). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf.
  • Kakwani, N.C. 1986: Analysing Redistribution Policies: A Study Using Australian Data. Cambridge: University Press.
  • Ravallion, M. (1994b). Poverty Comparisons. Harwood Academic Publishers.
     


Complete Lecture Outline


MONDAY SESSION:

Lecture 1: fundamentals
Income and wealth. The income unit: individual, household, tax unit. Differences in needs. Comparing income distributions.

Wider readings:

  • Fisher, F.M. 1987: Household equivalence scales and interpersonal comparisons. Review of Economic Studies, vol. 54, pp. 519 524.
  • Kakwani, N.C. 1986: Analysing Redistribution Policies: A Study Using Australian Data. Cambridge: University Press. Chapters 2 and 3

Next Lecture: Lambert §2.3, §2.4, §2.5

Lecture 2: inequality and the Lorenz curve
Inequality and its depiction using the Lorenz curve. Perfect equality: to be desired?

Wider readings:

  • Cowell, F.A. (1995). Measuring Inequality (2nd edition). Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf. Chapters 1 and 2 only
  • Jenkins, S. 1988: Calculating income distribution indices from micro data. National Tax Journal, vol. 41, pp. 139 142.
  • Kakwani, N.C. 1986: Analysing Redistribution Policies: A Study Using Australian Data. CUP, Chapter 4

Next Lecture: Lambert §3.1, §3.2, §3.3, §4.1
 



TUESDAY SESSION:

Lecture 3: Lorenz and generalized Lorenz dominance
Social welfare functions and the Atkinson theorem. The veil of ignorance, social decision-making and mathematical social choice theory. Generalized Lorenz dominance and the Shorrocks theorem. Inequality aversion.

Wider readings:

  • Atkinson, A.B. (1970). On the measurement of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 2, pp. 244 263. Reprinted as Chapter 3 in Atkinson, A.B. (1980). Wealth, Income and Inequality (Second Edition). Oxford: University Press.
  • Bishop, J.A., Formby, J.P. and Thistle, P.D. 1991: Rank dominance and international comparisons of income distribution. European Economic Review, 35, 1399-409.
  • Broome, J. 1989: What's the good of equality? Chapter 9, pages 236-262, in J.D. Hey (ed.) Current Issues in Microeconomics. London: Macmillan.
  • Jenkins, S.P. 1991: Income inequality and living standards: changes in the 1970s and 1980s. Fiscal Studies, 12(1), 1-28.
  • Kakwani N.C. 1984: Welfare ranking of income distributions. Advances In Econometrics, vol. 3, pp. 191 213.
  • Shorrocks, A.F. 1983: Ranking income distributions. Economica, vol. 50, pp. 1 17.

Next Lecture: Lambert §3.4, §3.5, §3.6

Lecture 4: generalized Lorenz intersections and differences in needs
The principle of diminishing transfers and intersecting generalized Lorenz curves. Poverty comparisons. Differences in need, equivalence scales and sequential dominance.

Wider readings:

  • Atkinson, A.B. 1989: Public economics and the economic public. European Economic Review, 34, 225-48.
  • Atkinson, A.B. and F. Bourguignon 1987: Income distribution and differences in needs. Chapter 12, pages 350-369, in G.R. Feiwel (ed.) Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy. London: Macmillan.
  • Dardanoni, V. and P.J. Lambert, 1988: Welfare rankings of income distributions: a role for the variance and some insights for tax reform. Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 5, pp. 1-17, 1988.
  • Ebert, U. 1997: Social welfare when needs differ: an axiomatic approach. Economica, vol. 64, pp.233-244.
  • Fleurbaey, M., C. Hagneré and A. Trannoy (2003). Welfare comparisons with bounded equivalence scales. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 110, pp. 309-336.
  • Jenkins, S.P. and P.J. Lambert, 1993: Ranking income distributions when needs differ. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 39, pp. 337-356.
  • Lambert, P.J. and X. Ramos (2002). Welfare comparisons: sequential procedures for heterogeneous populations. Economica, vol. 69, pp. 549-562.

Next Lecture: Lambert §5.1, §5.2
 



WEDNESDAY SESSION:

Lecture 5: inequality and welfare indices
Inequality indices: descriptive or prescriptive? Altruism, deprivation and the Gini coefficient. The extended Gini coefficient: a distributional judgement parameter.

Wider readings:

  • Amiel, Y. and Cowell, F.A. 1992: Measurement of income inequality: experimental test by questionnaire. Journal of Public Economics, 47, 3-26.
  • Bishop, J.A., Chakraborti, S. and Thistle, P.D. 1991: Relative deprivation and economic welfare: a statistical investigation with Gini-based welfare indices. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 93, 421-37.
  • Cowell, F.A. 1988: Inequality decomposition: three bad measures. Bulletin of Economic Research, vol. 40, pp. 309 312.
  • Creedy, J. 1977: The principle of transfers and the variance of logarithms. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol. 39, pp. 153 158.
  • Foster, J.E. and E.A. Ok (1999). Lorenz dominance and the variance of logarithms. Econometrica, vol. 67, pp. 901-907.
  • Glewwe, P. 1991: Household equivalence scales and the measurement of inequality: transfers from the poor to the rich could decrease inequality. Journal of Public Economics, 44, 211-6.
  • Jenkins, S. 1989: The measurement of economic inequality. Chapter 1, pages 3-38, in L. Osberg (ed.) Readings on Economic Inequality. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe.
  • Kanbur, R. (2006). The policy significance of inequality decompositions. Journal of Economic Inequality, vol. 4, pp. 367-374
  • Kondor, Y. 1975: Value judgements implied by the use of various measures of income inequality. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 21, pp. 309 321.
  • Lambert, P.J. and J.R. Aronson, 1993: Inequality decomposition analysis and the Gini coefficient revisited. Economic Journal, vol. 103, pp. 1221-27.
  • Lambert, P.J., Millimet, D.L., Slottje, D., 2003. Inequality aversion and the natural rate of subjective inequality. Journal of Public Economics 87 (5– 6), 1061–1090.
  • Sen, A. (1997) On Economic Inequality, expanded edition. Oxford: University Press. Introduction only. But see also the Annexe: On economic inequality after a quarter century (co-author J. Foster).
  • Shorrocks, A.F. and G. Wan (2004). Spatial decomposition of inequality. Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 5, pp. 59-81.

Next Lecture: Lambert §5.3, §5.4

Lecture 6: extended Gini and Atkinson inequality indices
Equally distributed equivalent income and the cost of inequality. The Atkinson index: comparing LDCs with advanced countries. Ethical problems.

Wider readings:

  • Atkinson, A.B. (1970). On the measurement of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 2, pp. 244 263. Reprinted as Chapter 3 in Atkinson, A.B. (1980). Wealth, Income and Inequality (Second Edition). Oxford: University Press.
  • Donaldson, D. and J.A. Weymark (1980). A single parameter generalization of the Gini indices of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 22, pp. 67 86.
  • Moore, R.E. (1996). Ranking income distributions using the geometric mean and a related general measure. Southern Economic Journal, vol. 63, pp. 69-75.
  • Muliere, P. and Scarsini, M. 1989: A note on stochastic dominance and inequality measures. Journal of Economic Theory, 49, 314 23.
  • Yitzhaki, S. 1983: On an extension of the Gini index. International Economic Review, vol. 24, pp. 617 628.

Next Lecture: Lambert §8.1, §8.2, 7.1, §8.3, §8.4
 



THURSDAY SESSION:

Lecture 7: poverty
Who is poor and how poor. Links between poverty, inequality and welfare. Poverty indices, poverty dominance. Differences in need and sequential poverty dominance criteria.

Wider readings:

  • Atkinson, A.B. (1987). On the measurement of poverty. Econometrica, vol. 55, pp. 749 764. Reprinted as chapter 2 in Atkinson (1989).
  • Atkinson, A.B. (1992). Measuring poverty and differences in family composition. Economica, vol. 59, pp. 1-16.
  • Chambaz, C. and E. Maurin (1998). Atkinson and Bourguignon's dominance criteria: extended and applied to the measurement of poverty in France. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 44, pp. 497-513.
  • Foster, J.E. (1998). Absolute versus relative poverty. American Economic Review (AEA Papers and Proceedings), vol. 88, pp. 335-341.
  • Foster J., J. Greer and E. Thorbecke (1984). A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econometrica, vol. 52, pp. 761 766.
  • Jenkins, S.P. and P.J. Lambert (1997). "Three 'I's of poverty" curves, with an analysis of U.K. poverty trends. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 49, pp. 317-327.
  • Ravallion, M. (1994). Measuring social welfare with and without poverty lines. American Economic Review (AEA Papers and Proceedings), vol. 84, pp. 359-364.
  • Sen, A. (1976). Poverty: an ordinal approach to measurement. Econometrica, vol. 44, pp. 219 231. Reprinted as Chapter 17 in Sen (1982).
  • Sen, A. (1983). Poor, relatively speaking. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 35, pp. 153-169.
  • Townsend, P. (1985). A sociological approach to the measurement of poverty. - a rejoinder to Professor Amartya Sen. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 37, pp. 659-668. Reply by Amartya Sen: ibid, pp. 669-676.

Next Lecture: Lambert (1993) §6, §7.1, §7.2

Lecture 8: a progressive income tax schedule
Income taxation, redistributive effect and progressivity

Wider readings:

  • Dardanoni, V. and P.J. Lambert (2002). Progressivity comparisons. Journal of Public Economics, 86, pp. 99-122.
  • Fellman, J. (1976). The effect of transformations on Lorenz curves. Econometrica, vol. 44, pp. 823 824.
  • Fellman, J., M. Jäntti and P. J. Lambert (1999). Optimal tax-transfer systems and redistributive policy. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol. 101, pp. 1-9.
  • Jakobsson, U. (1976). On the measurement of the degree of progression. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 5, pp. 161 168.
  • Kakwani, N.C. 1977: Measurement of tax progressivity: an international comparison. Economic Journal, vol. 87, pp. 71 80.
  • Suits, D. (1977). Measurement of tax progressivity. American Economic Review, vol. 67, pp. 747 752.

Next Lecture: Lambert §7.2, §7.3, §10.1, §10.2, §10.3
 



FRIDAY SESSION:

Lecture 9: real-world income taxes: horizontal and vertical equity
Differences in income tax treatment: horizontal equity and reranking.

Wider readings:

  • Aronson, J.R., P. Johnson and P.J. Lambert (1994). Redistributive effect and unequal income tax treatment. Economic Journal, vol. 104, pp. 262-270.
  • Johnson, S. and T. Mayer (1962). An extension of Sidgewick's equity principle. Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 76, pp. 454-463.
  • Lambert, P.J. 1993a: Inequality reduction through the income tax. Economica.
  • Lambert, P.J. 1993b: Redistribution through the income tax. Pages 1-16 in Taxation, Poverty and Income Distribution (ed. J. Creedy). Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
  • Lambert, P.J. and X. Ramos (1997). Vertical redistribution and horizontal inequity. International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 4, pp. 25-37.
  • Lambert, P.J. and S. Yitzhaki (1994). Equity, equality and welfare. European Economic Review, vol. 39, pp. 674-682.
  • Moyes, P. and A.F. Shorrocks (1998). The impossibility of a progressive tax structure. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 69, pp. 49-65.
  • Musgrave, R. A. (1990). Horizontal equity, once more. National Tax Journal, vol. 43, pp. 113-122.

Next Lecture: No relevant material in Lambert (2001)

Lecture 10: extensions
Intertemporal redistribution; welfare-improving commodity tax reform.

Wider readings:

  • Berliant, M. and M. Gouveia, 1993: Equal sacrifice and incentive compatible income taxation. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 51, pp. 219-240.
  • Yitzhaki, S. and J. Lewis (1996). Guidelines on searching for Dalton-improving tax reforms: illustrations with data from Indonesia, The World Bank Economic Review, vol. 10, pp. 541-62.
  • Mayshar, J. and S. Yitzhaki (1995). Dalton-improving indirect tax reforms, American Economic Review, vol. 85, pp. 793-808.
  • Mayshar J. and S. Yitzhaki (1996). Dalton-improving tax reform: when households differ in ability and needs. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 62, pp. 399-412.
     


Complete Syllabus Reading List (919 pages)

  • Amiel, Y. and Cowell, F.A. 1992: Measurement of income inequality: experimental test by questionnaire. Journal of Public Economics, 47, 3-26.
  • Aronson, J.R., P. Johnson and P.J. Lambert (1994). Redistributive effect and unequal income tax treatment. Economic Journal, vol. 104, pp. 262-270.
  • Atkinson, A.B. (1970). On the measurement of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 2, pp. 244 263. Reprinted as Chapter 3 in Atkinson, A.B. (1980). Wealth, Income and Inequality (Second Edition). Oxford: University Press.
  • Atkinson, A.B. (1987). On the measurement of poverty. Econometrica, vol. 55, pp. 749 764. Reprinted as chapter 2 in Atkinson (1989).
  • Atkinson, A.B. 1989: Public economics and the economic public. European Economic Review, 34, 225-48.
  • Atkinson, A.B. (1992). Measuring poverty and differences in family composition. Economica, vol. 59, pp. 1-16.
  • Atkinson, A.B. and F. Bourguignon 1987: Income distribution and differences in needs. Chapter 12, pages 350-369, in G.R. Feiwel (ed.) Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy. London: Macmillan.
  • Berliant, M. and M. Gouveia, 1993: Equal sacrifice and incentive compatible income taxation. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 51, pp. 219-240.
  • Bishop, J.A., Chakraborti, S. and Thistle, P.D. 1991: Relative deprivation and economic welfare: a statistical investigation with Gini-based welfare indices. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 93, 421-37.
  • Bishop, J.A., Formby, J.P. and Thistle, P.D. 1991: Rank dominance and international comparisons of income distribution. European Economic Review, 35, 1399-409.
  • Broome, J. 1989: What's the good of equality? Chapter 9, pages 236-262, in J.D. Hey (ed.) Current Issues in Microeconomics. London: Macmillan.
  • Chambaz, C. and E. Maurin (1998). Atkinson and Bourguignon's dominance criteria: extended and applied to the measurement of poverty in France. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 44, pp. 497-513.
  • Cowell, F.A. 1988: Inequality decomposition: three bad measures. Bulletin of Economic Research, vol. 40, pp. 309 312.
  • Creedy, J. 1977: The principle of transfers and the variance of logarithms. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, vol. 39, pp. 153 158.
  • Dardanoni, V. and P.J. Lambert, 1988: Welfare rankings of income distributions: a role for the variance and some insights for tax reform. Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 5, pp. 1-17, 1988.
  • Dardanoni, V. and P.J. Lambert (2002). Progressivity comparisons. Journal of Public Economics, 86, pp. 99-122.
  • Donaldson, D. and J.A. Weymark (1980). A single parameter generalization of the Gini indices of inequality. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 22, pp. 67 86.
  • Ebert, U. 1997: Social welfare when needs differ: an axiomatic approach. Economica, vol. 64, pp.233-244.
  • Fellman, J. (1976). The effect of transformations on Lorenz curves. Econometrica, vol. 44, pp. 823 824.
  • Fellman, J., M. Jäntti and P. J. Lambert (1999). Optimal tax-transfer systems and redistributive policy. Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol. 101, pp. 1-9.
  • Fisher, F.M. 1987: Household equivalence scales and interpersonal comparisons. Review of Economic Studies, vol. 54, pp. 519 524.
  • Fleurbaey, M., C. Hagneré and A. Trannoy (2003). Welfare comparisons with bounded equivalence scales. Journal of Economic Theory, vol. 110, pp. 309-336.
  • Foster, J.E. (1998). Absolute versus relative poverty. American Economic Review (AEA Papers and Proceedings), vol. 88, pp. 335-341.
  • Foster J., J. Greer and E. Thorbecke (1984). A class of decomposable poverty measures. Econometrica, vol. 52, pp. 761 766.
  • Foster, J.E. and E.A. Ok (1999). Lorenz dominance and the variance of logarithms. Econometrica, vol. 67, pp. 901-907.
  • Glewwe, P. 1991: Household equivalence scales and the measurement of inequality: transfers from the poor to the rich could decrease inequality. Journal of Public Economics, 44, 211-6.
  • Jakobsson, U. (1976). On the measurement of the degree of progression. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 5, pp. 161 168.
  • Jenkins, S. 1988: Calculating income distribution indices from micro data. National Tax Journal, vol. 41, pp. 139 142.
  • Jenkins, S. 1989: The measurement of economic inequality. Chapter 1, pages 3-38, in L. Osberg (ed.) Readings on Economic Inequality. Armonk, N.Y.: Sharpe.
  • Jenkins, S.P. 1991: Income inequality and living standards: changes in the 1970s and 1980s. Fiscal Studies, 12(1), 1-28.
  • Jenkins, S.P. and P.J. Lambert, 1993: Ranking income distributions when needs differ. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 39, pp. 337-356.
  • Jenkins, S.P. and P.J. Lambert (1997). "Three 'I's of poverty" curves, with an analysis of U.K. poverty trends. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 49, pp. 317-327.
  • Johnson, S. and T. Mayer (1962). An extension of Sidgewick's equity principle. Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 76, pp. 454-463.
  • Kakwani, N.C. 1977: Measurement of tax progressivity: an international comparison. Economic Journal, vol. 87, pp. 71 80.
  • Kakwani N.C. 1984: Welfare ranking of income distributions. Advances In Econometrics, vol. 3, pp. 191 213.
  • Kanbur, R. (2006). The policy significance of inequality decompositions. Journal of Economic Inequality, vol. 4, pp. 367-374
  • Kondor, Y. 1975: Value judgements implied by the use of various measures of income inequality. Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 21, pp. 309 321.
  • Lambert, P.J. 1993a: Inequality reduction through the income tax. Economica, vol. 60, pp. 357-365.
  • Lambert, P.J. 1993b: Redistribution through the income tax. Pages 1-16 in Taxation, Poverty and Income Distribution (ed. J. Creedy). Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
  • Lambert, P.J. and J.R. Aronson, 1993: Inequality decomposition analysis and the Gini coefficient revisited. Economic Journal, vol. 103, pp. 1221-27.
  • Lambert, P.J., Millimet, D.L., Slottje, D., 2003. Inequality aversion and the natural rate of subjective inequality. Journal of Public Economics 87 (5– 6), 1061–1090.
  • Lambert, P.J. and X. Ramos (1997). Vertical redistribution and horizontal inequity. International Tax and Public Finance, vol. 4, pp. 25-37.
  • Lambert, P.J. and X. Ramos (2002). Welfare comparisons: sequential procedures for heterogeneous populations. Economica, vol. 69, pp. 549-562.
  • Lambert, P.J. and S. Yitzhaki (1994). Equity, equality and welfare. European Economic Review, vol. 39, pp. 674-682.
  • Mayshar, J. and S. Yitzhaki (1995). Dalton-improving indirect tax reforms, American Economic Review, vol. 85, pp. 793-808.
  • Mayshar J. and S. Yitzhaki (1996). Dalton-improving tax reform: when households differ in ability and needs. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 62, pp. 399-412.
  • Moore, R.E. (1996). Ranking income distributions using the geometric mean and a related general measure. Southern Economic Journal, vol. 63, pp. 69-75.
  • Moyes, P. and A.F. Shorrocks (1998). The impossibility of a progressive tax structure. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 69, pp. 49-65.
  • Muliere, P. and Scarsini, M. 1989: A note on stochastic dominance and inequality measures. Journal of Economic Theory, 49, 314 23.
  • Musgrave, R. A. (1990). Horizontal equity, once more. National Tax Journal, vol. 43, pp. 113-122.
  • Ravallion, M. (1994a). Measuring social welfare with and without poverty lines. American Economic Review (AEA Papers and Proceedings), vol. 84, pp. 359-364.
  • Sen, A. (1976). Poverty: an ordinal approach to measurement. Econometrica, vol. 44, pp. 219 231. Reprinted as Chapter 17 in Sen (1982).
  • Sen, A. (1983). Poor, relatively speaking. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 35, pp. 153-169.
  • Shorrocks, A.F. 1983: Ranking income distributions. Economica, vol. 50, pp. 1 17.
  • Shorrocks, A.F. and G. Wan (2004). Spatial decomposition of inequality. Journal of Economic Geography, vol. 5, pp. 59-81.
  • Suits, D. (1977). Measurement of tax progressivity. American Economic Review, vol. 67, pp. 747 752.
  • Townsend, P. (1985). A sociological approach to the measurement of poverty. - a rejoinder to Professor Amartya Sen. Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 37, pp. 659-668. Reply by Amartya Sen: ibid, pp. 669-676.
  • Yitzhaki, S. 1983: On an extension of the Gini index. International Economic Review, vol. 24, pp. 617 628.
  • Yitzhaki, S. and J. Lewis (1996). Guidelines on searching for Dalton-improving tax reforms: illustrations with data from Indonesia, The World Bank Economic Review, vol. 10, pp. 541-62.



Additional/Supplementary Readings for the Course
For the assessment of this course, each participant will choose or be assigned a (different) topic, related to some aspect of the course material, and will write an in-depth paper, critically evaluating some relevant literature and going deeper than would be possible in class. Performance will be judged on the participant’s assessment of the purpose, motivation, agenda and findings of the relevant literature, and also on his/her success in cutting through the technicalities to the essence of the selected topic. A list of possible topics follows, for each one of which a short list of suggested supplementary readings can be supplied on request. Any one of these topics could, if a participant wished, be chosen as the basis for the assessed essay, but this is not necessary: other topics may be proposed or devised as the course proceeds.

  • Equivalence scales
  • Polarization and the disappearing middle class
  • Orders of stochastic dominance
  • Statistical inference for Lorenz/generalized Lorenz dominance
  • Intermediate and absolute inequality concepts
  • Social heterogeneity: equivalizing and sequential methods
  • Multidimensional inequality
  • Subgroup decompositions of inequality
  • International and world income inequality
  • Comparative properties of inequality indices
  • Pro-poor growth
  • Poverty aversion, the injustice of poverty and the FGT index
  • The equal sacrifice principle and the benefit principle
  • Popularity of progressive taxes
  • Progression and disincentives
  • Classical horizontal inequity and reranking
  • Responsibility, circumstance and redistribution


The Lecturer
Peter Lambert is Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, USA. He has a D. Phil. in Mathematics from the University of Oxford and an M. Sc. in Economics and Econometrics from the University of York, UK. He has held visiting appointments at the Delhi School of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Melbourne, Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration (Helsinki), Fiscal Affairs Department (IMF) and University of Otago, among other places. He is Editor of the “Rediscovered Classics” section of The Journal of Economic Inequality, and a member of the Editorial Board of Social Choice and Welfare. Peter’s research focuses upon measurement problems and normative issues associated with the distribution and redistribution of income, including inequality, poverty and the redistributive effects of taxes and benefits.


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