On Economic Inequality (Radcliffe Lectures) (Paperback)

~ (Author), James E. Foster (Contributor) "'Of all human sciences the most useful and most imperfect appears to me to be that of mankind: and I will venture to say the..." (more)
Key Phrases: lower welfare function, subgroup consistency, relative inequality measures, Chiappero Martinetti, Leap Forward, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rarely has so small a volume offered so comprehensive an overview of its subject, constituting a readable and intelligent evaluation of the literature of economic inequality."--William J. Baumol, Economica

Product Description

In this classic text, first published in 1973, Amartya Sen relates the theory of welfare economics to the study of economic inequality. He presents a systematic treatment of the conceptual framework as well as the practical problems of measurement of inequality. In his masterful analysis, Sen assesses various approaches to measuring inequality and delineates the causes and effects of economic disparities. Containing the four lectures from the original edition as well as a new introduction, this timeless study is essential reading for economists, philosophers, and social scientists.

In a new introduction, Amartya Sen, jointly with James Foster, critically surveys the literature that followed the publication of this book, and also evaluates the main analytical issues in the appraisal of economic inequality and poverty.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 27, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198281935
• ISBN-13: 978-0198281931
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #530,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The standard source on economic inequality, February 16, 2006

By	Stanislav Kolenikov (Columbia, MO, United States; Moscow, Russia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Despite the fact that the discipline of economic inequality measurement is thriving in the last twenty or so years (may be thirty something if you count from Atkinson (1970) paper), the textbook format publications of the general character are rare; I can only think of Lambert (2002) as another major source. Amartya Sen is a Nobel prize winner in the area of inequality, poverty and famines; and James Foster who wrote an extensive commentary featured in this second edition of the original Sen's lectures is arguably the most often cited author in inequality and poverty measurement due to his principal contributions on the classes of decomposable measures and poverty orderings.

It should be noted that Sen is kinda difficult reading; his language is a little bit archaic, and not very typical for the modern highly mathematized economic publications (don't worry, you'll see enough abstract algebra once you start going into the details of the derivation of the properties of inequality/poverty indices...)

I don't think that the other review gives anything close to the real merit of this book, as it seems to be written by an information econometrician rather than somebody doing substantive distribution research. I would comment that generalized entropy measures are important, if not central, in the inequality measurement due to their nice properties, but are not the only measures possible. The authors rather wanted to give a big picture, and, as I said, you can get all sorts of details in the article publications they refer to.

14 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A key to evaluating inequality, June 11, 1999

By	GK "uneon" - See all my reviews

I learned a lot from Sen's and Foster's book. It is an important key to the understanding of inequality measures. Especially the welfare funcion seems to be a much better measure to describe income than the average per capita income.

I, however, have one objection. Sen is careful enough not to completely reject Theil's formula (see formula 2.11 in "On Economic Inequality"). And although Sen and James E. Foster are puzzled by the application of entropy to economics, they seemingly also feel, that it is interesting enough to be discussed.

Unfortunately though, Sen called Theil's formula not only "interesting", but also "arbitrary". Here is an example for how Sen's further comments on Theil's measure successfully inhibited other researchers to develop an understanding for entropy measures. "Sen ... describes the major flaw in T very nicely when he states that it 'is not a measure that is exactly overflowing with intuitive sense'. Why then would econometricians - or anyone else - want to use T?" This response (from a participant from Macquarie University, 1991 Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education) is regrettable. I wish, Sen and Foster would reevaluate entropy measures and their application to the measurement of inequality.

"Intuitive" understanding of entropy is rare. (That is why confusing entropy problems with energy problems is common.) The major flaw in evaluating entropy measures often is lack of common knowledge in physics as well as lack of intuition. If sociologists and economists don't trust physicists or engineers, they at least should observe how the "Shannon index" is used in statistical ecology.

As for economics, you find excellent examples for how to use Theil's measure in James K. Galbraith's "Created Unequal" (1998, ISBN 0-684-84988-7).