Monotonicity and the Pareto Principle (Now published in Economic Letters 45 (1994), pp.447-450)

We examine the implications of three similar criteria that are commonly used in welfare economics and the analysis of inequality and poverty - income dominance, monotonicity and the Pareto principle - within the context of income-distribution comparisons. We show that whilst there is a simple logical relationship between the first two criteria, the third is neither implied by nor implies the other two unless an assumption of individual indifference to income distribution is made.