The distribution of gross income net of taxes and transfers - or equivalenty consumption - is generally considered a reasonable approximation of the distribution of well-being in the society. One typically observes differing trends in the distribution of gross incomes across countries or within...

Equivalence scales are typically designed for adjusting households' incomes for differences in size and composition. On the one hand, there is evidence that the way differences in needs across households are taken into account has a significant impact on the assessment of inequality in the...

When incomes are exogenously given, a progressive tax structure reduces inequality in the sense that the Lorenz curve of after tax incomes is nowhere below that of before tax incomes whatever the circumstances as it was shown by U. Jakobsson (Journal of Public Economics 5 (1976), 161-168) The...

The paper extends previous results on welfare and inequality comparisons when incomes are weighted and the weights are not necessarily equal across the statistical units. A flexible approach to inequality measurement is allowed which admits as particular cases the relative and absolute views. We...

Two common principles in distributional analysis are that (i) a progressive transfer moves the Lorenz curve upwards, and (ii) progressive [neutral] taxation reduces [leaves unchanged] inequality. In order to establish these results it is currently assumed that the distribution of income is...

When incomes are exogenously given, U. Jakobsson ( <link rid="b12">Journal of Public Economics </link> s 5 (1976), 161-168) proved that a progressive tax structure always reduces inequality. We investigate the implications for effective progression of relaxing the assumption of exogenous incomes when individuals have...

The aim of the paper is to provide guidelines in order to make meaningful comparisons of heterogeneous distributions when incomes are adjusted in order to accommodate differences in needs. We emphasize that the choice of the equivalent income function and the system of weights associated to the...