We axiomatically characterize the Theil ordering of income inequality. In addition to the uncontroversial axioms of anonymity, homogeneity, replication invariance, strong directedness, and a standard continuity property, we appeal to both an independence and a decomposability axioms. These two...

Measuring the extent to which distribution is polarized has recently attracted some attention from economists. Polarization, though related to inequality, is a different concept and implies a tendency towards clustering of observations into groups. It is of interest because it may be related to...

This paper emphasizes the properties of a family of inequality measures which extends the Atkinson indices and is axiomatically characterized by a multiplicative decomposition property where the withingroup component is a generalized weighted mean with weights summing exactly to 1. This family...

We provide a simple proof of Foster's (1983) characterization of the Theil inequality index.

We provide a simple proof of Foster's (1983) characterization of the Theil inequality index.

It is possible to partially order cities with two ethnic groups according to the Lorenz criterion. Similarly, it is possible to partially order cities according to the informativeness of neighborhoods about the ethnic groups of its inhabitants. We show the equivalence of these two orders for the...