The 1990-91 household expenditures distribution in Spain dominates, in the relative ("rightist") Lorenz sense, the 1980-81 distribution, but the latter dominates the former in the absolute ("leftist") Lorenz sense. This situation constitutes a textbook case for intermediate or "centrist" notions...

We use an extension of the Esteban and Ray (1994) approach to polarization in order to analyze the role of different household characteristics in the formation of groups in Spanish expenditure distribution, e.g. educational level, position in the labor market, and region. According to a first...