Inequality of post-tax income among pre-tax equals is evaluated and aggregated to form a global index of horizontal inequity in the income tax. The vertical action of the tax is captured by its inequality effect on average between groups of pre-tax equals. Putting the two together, horizontal...

This chapter reviews the basic conceptual foundations for the measurement of polarization, the origins of those foundations, how polarization is distinct from inequality and other ways of considering distances and differences across individuals, and how polarization can be measured in an...

Individual well-being depends not only on income but also on other dimensions of life, such as health, the quality of social relations and of the environment, employment, and job satisfaction. In this chapter we survey the economic literature on how to construct such overall measures of...

We provide a critique of the standard methodology which bases welfare comparisons between households on deflating household income and consumption by an equivalence scale. We argue that this leads to support for tax/transfer policies that significantly disadvantage low to middle income...

This study examines the effect of zonal differences on the distribution of per capita expenditure in terms of polarization, inequality, and poverty in Nigeria. Data sources include the NCS 1996 and NLSS 2004, and analytical techniques used include Gini index and selected measures of...

Although the vast majority of US research on trends in the inequality of family income is based on public-use March Current Population Survey (CPS) data, a new wave of research based on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return data reports substantially higher levels of inequality and faster...

It stands to reason that social unrest does not erupt out of the blue. Although there are a great many reasons why social dismay might descend into social disorder, only few yardsticks or indices can plausibly be used to gauge the potential for social unrest (PSU). If policy makers want to...

This paper argues that political polarization plays a key role in shaping the economic expectations and consumption behavior of households. Using a combination of survey and consumption data of U.S. households, we document five facts. First, household beliefs are well-described by a single...