(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)"> (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)">
[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/swe/wpaper/2007-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Class of Two-Group Polarization Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Bossert

    (Universite de Montreal)

  • William Schworm

    (School of Economics, The University of New South Wales)

Abstract
The phenomenon of income polarization is generally associated with a disappearing middle class but there does not seem to be a generally accepted definition of this notion. We characterize classes of polarization quasi‐orderings and polarization measures in a framework where there are two income groups separated by the median. The axioms we employ are variants of within‐group clustering and between‐group spread properties, and an independence property. Furthermore, we illustrate that attempts to extend the axioms to more general settings severely restrict their appeal and conclude that alternative approaches may be required to capture concepts involving polarization.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Bossert & William Schworm, 2007. "A Class of Two-Group Polarization Measures," Discussion Papers 2007-34, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    • Handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2007-34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://wwwdocs.fce.unsw.edu.au/economics/Research/WorkingPapers/2007_34.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Schultz, 1996. "Polarization and Inefficient Policies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(2), pages 331-344.
    2. Joan Esteban & Carlos Gradín & Debraj Ray, 2007. "An Extension of a Measure of Polarization, with an application to the income distribution of five OECD countries," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, April.
    3. Ravallion, Martin & Chen, Shaohua, 1997. "What Can New Survey Data Tell Us about Recent Changes in Distribution and Poverty?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 11(2), pages 357-382, May.
    4. Jean-Yves Duclos & Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2004. "Polarization: Concepts, Measurement, Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(6), pages 1737-1772, November.
    5. repec:bla:jpbect:v:2:y:2000:i:3:p:349-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1999. "Conflict and Distribution," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 379-415, August.
    7. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1994. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 819-851, July.
    8. repec:bla:econom:v:50:y:1983:i:197:p:3-17 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Seshanna, Shubhasree & Decornez, Stephane, 2003. "Income polarization and inequality across countries: an empirical study," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 335-358, June.
    10. repec:bla:revinw:v:46:y:2000:i:4:p:457-74 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Michael C. Wolfson, 1997. "Divergent Inequalities: Theory And Empirical Results," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(4), pages 401-421, December.
    12. Wolfson, Michael C, 1994. "When Inequalities Diverge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 353-358, May.
    13. Wolfson, Michael, 1997. "Divergent Inequalities - Theory and Empirical Results (Revised Edition)," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 1997066e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    14. X. Zhang & R. Kanbur, 2001. "What Difference Do Polarisation Measures Make? An Application to China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 85-98.
    15. repec:bla:revinw:v:43:y:1997:i:4:p:401-21 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Satya R. Chakravarty & Amita Majumder, 2001. "Inequality, Polarisation and Welfare: Theory and Applications," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 1-13, March.
    17. You‐Qiang Wang & Kai‐Yuen Tsui, 2000. "Polarization Orderings and New Classes of Polarization Indices," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 2(3), pages 349-363, July.
    18. Conchita D’ambrosio, 2001. "Household Characteristics and the Distribution of Income In Italy: An Application of Social Distance Measures," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 47(1), pages 43-64, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gaston Yalonetzky, 2017. "The Benchmark of Maximum Relative Bipolarisation," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Research on Economic Inequality, volume 25, pages 39-50, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Muhammad Touseef-Ur-Rehman & Usman Mustafa & Humayun Rashid, 2015. "Trends of Income Inequality and Polarisation in Pakistan for the Period 1990-2008," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 447-467.
    3. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Humberto Llavador, 2021. "Inequality, Bipolarization, and Tax Progressivity," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 492-513, November.
    4. Mussini Mauro, 2018. "On Measuring Polarization For Ordinal Data: An Approach Based On The Decomposition Of The Leti Index," Statistics in Transition New Series, Statistics Poland, vol. 19(2), pages 277-296, June.
    5. Marek Kosny & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2016. "Relative p-bipolarisation measurement with generalised means and hybrid Lorenz curves," Working Papers 404, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    6. Gaston Yalonetzky, 2013. "Relative bipolarization quasi-ordering based on Between-Group Gini (BGG) curves," Working Papers 318, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    7. Silber, Jacques & Yalonetzky, Gaston, 2021. "Measuring welfare, inequality and poverty with ordinal variables," GLO Discussion Paper Series 962, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Satya R. Chakravarty & Rama Pal & Rupayan Pal & Palash Sarkar, 2022. "Minimum inequality taxation, average and minimally progressive taxations and depolarization," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2022-010, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    9. Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel & Robone, Silvana & Dias, Pedro Rosa, 2011. "Inequality and polarisation in health systems' responsiveness: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 616-625, July.
    10. Florent Bresson & Marek Kosny & Gaston Yalonetzky, 2023. "Bipolarisation measurement: A two-income approach with an application to nine Sub-Saharan African countries," Working Papers 653, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    11. Schettino, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio & Suppa, Domenico, 2024. "COVID 19 and Wage Polarization: A task based approach," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1398, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Mauro Mussini, 2018. "On Measuring Polarization For Ordinal Data: An Approach Based On The Decomposition Of The Leti Index," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 19(2), pages 277-296, June.
    13. Maria Livia ŞTEFĂNESCU, 2015. "Analyzing the health status of the population using ordinal data," Computational Methods in Social Sciences (CMSS), "Nicolae Titulescu" University of Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 3(1), pages 18-24, June.
    14. Mauro Mussini & Biancamaria Zavanella, 2015. "Measuring bipolarization in labour productivity in Italy: a new index and its decomposition by sectors and regional factors," RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA E STATISTICA DEL TERRITORIO, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2015(3), pages 29-55.
    15. Gaston Yalonetzky, 2014. "Relative bipolarization Lorenz curve," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(2), pages 1103-1113.
    16. Iñaki Permanyer & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2015. "Measuring Social Polarization with Ordinal and Categorical Data," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(3), pages 311-327, June.
    17. Peter Lambert, 2010. "James Foster and Michael Wolfson’s 1992 paper “Polarization and the decline of the middle class”," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(2), pages 241-245, June.
    18. Tomasz Panek & Jan Zwierzchowski, 2020. "Median Relative Partial Income Polarization Indices: Investigating Economic Polarization in Poland During the Years 2005–2015," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 1025-1044, June.
    19. Gaston Yalonetzky, 2017. "The Necessary Requirement of Median Independence for Relative Bipolarisation Measurement," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Research on Economic Inequality, volume 25, pages 51-62, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    20. Chakravarty, Satya R. & Sarkar, Palash, 2022. "A synthesis of local and effective tax progressivity measurement," MPRA Paper 115180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2015. "A Class of Social Welfare Functions That Depend on Mean Income and Income Polarization," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 422-439, September.
    22. Rolf Aaberge & A B Atkinson, 2013. "The median as watershed," Discussion Papers 749, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    23. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chiara Assunta Ricci & Sergio Scicchitano, 2021. "Decomposing changes in income polarization by population group: what happened during the crisis?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 235-259, April.
    2. Satya Chakravarty & Bhargav Maharaj, 2012. "Ethnic polarization orderings and indices," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 99-123, May.
    3. F. Clementi & A. L. Dabalen & V. Molini & F. Schettino, 2017. "When the Centre Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63(4), pages 608-632, December.
    4. Marta Pascual & David Cantarero & Paloma Lanza, 2018. "Health polarization and inequalities across Europe: an empirical approach," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(8), pages 1039-1051, November.
    5. Azomahou, Théophile T. & Diene, Mbaye, 2012. "Polarization patterns in economic development and innovation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 421-436.
    6. Iñaki Permanyer, 2012. "The conceptualization and measurement of social polarization," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(1), pages 45-74, March.
    7. Michal Brzezinski, 2013. "Income polarization and economic growth," Working Papers 296, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    8. Satya R. Chakravarty & Conchita D'Ambrosio, 2010. "Polarization Orderings Of Income Distributions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 56(1), pages 47-64, March.
    9. Joan Esteban & Debraj Ray, 2005. "A Comparison of Polarization Measures," Working Papers 310, Barcelona School of Economics.
    10. Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2004. "Measuring polarization, inequality, welfare and poverty," Economic Working Papers at Centro de Estudios Andaluces E2004/75, Centro de Estudios Andaluces.
    11. Juan Gabriel Rodríguez, 2015. "A Class of Social Welfare Functions That Depend on Mean Income and Income Polarization," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(3), pages 422-439, September.
    12. Iñaki Permanyer, 2008. "The Measurement of Social Polarization in a Multi-group Context," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 736.08, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    13. Chiara Gigliarano & Karl Mosler, 2009. "Constructing indices of multivariate polarization," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 7(4), pages 435-460, December.
    14. Fuad Aleskerov & Victoria Oleynik, 2016. "Multidimensional Polarization Index and its Application to an Analysis of the Russian State Duma," Papers 1608.01351, arXiv.org.
    15. Chiara Gigliarano & Daniel Nowak & Karl Mosler, 2019. "A Polarization Index for Overlapping Groups," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(4), pages 712-735, December.
    16. Azomahou, Theophile & Diene, Mbaye, 2012. "Income polarization and innovation: Evidence from African economies," MERIT Working Papers 2012-048, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Antonio Duro, Juan & Teixidó-Figueras, Jordi, 2014. "World polarization in carbon emissions, potential conflict and groups: An updated revision," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 425-432.
    18. Ricci, Chiara Assunta & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "The role of Great Recession on income polarization by population groups," GLO Discussion Paper Series 766, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    19. Fabio Clementi & Francesco Schettino, 2013. "Income polarization in Brazil, 2001-2011: A distributional analysis using PNAD data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(3), pages 1796-1815.
    20. Satya R. Chakravarty & Amita Majumder & Sonali Roy, 2007. "A Treatment Of Absolute Indices Of Polarization," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 58(2), pages 273-293, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:swe:wpaper:2007-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Hongyi Li (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/senswau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.