POLES APART? AN ANALYSIS OF THE MEANING OF POLARIZATION

Starting from the axiomatization of polarization contained in <link rid="b10">Esteban and Ray (1994</link>) and <link rid="b7">Chakravarty and Majumder (2001</link>), we investigate whether people's perceptions of income polarization are consistent with the key axioms. This is carried out using a questionnaire-experimental approach that combines both paper questionnaires and on-line interactive techniques. The responses suggest that important axioms which serve to differentiate polarization from inequality-e.g. increased bipolarization-as well as other distinctive features of polarization, i.e. the non-monotonous behavior attributed to polarization, are not widely accepted. Copyright 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation International Association for Research in Income and Wealth 2009.