Author: Amartya Sen
Jamess E Foster/
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 260
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195647343
Description
This seminal work presents a systematic treatment of the conceptual framework as well as the practical problems of measurement of economic inequality. Alternative approaches are evaluated in terms of their philosophical assumptions, economic content, and statistical requirements.
In this expanded edition with a substantial new annex by James E Foster and Amartya Sen, recent developments in this area and their bearing on the evaluation and measurement of inequality and poverty are examined. Some of the analytical issues partially examined in the original edition are more rigorously treated and many policy-related contemporary issues identified and successfully investigated.
This book lays down the basic concepts in non-technical terms, and offers intuitive explanations for mathematical results, making it more accessible to the general reader.
Rarely has so small a volume offered so comprehensive an overview of its subject, constituting a readable and intelligent evaluation of the literature on economic inequality. -- William Baumol, ECONOMICA
This book displays Sen's usual clarity and rigor of expression. THE ECONOMIST
Contents
Welfare Economics, Utilitarianism, and Equity
Measures of Inequality
Inequality as a Quasi-Ordering
Work, Needs, and Inequality
Annexe : 'On Economic Inequality after a Quarter Century' by James Foster and Amartya Sen
Bibliography
Index of Names
Subject index