The Gini coefficient: Majority voting and social welfare

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gabriel Rodriguez, Juan; Salas, Rafael
• 署名单位: Complutense University of Madrid
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2014.04.012
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 214-223
• 关键词: Social evaluation function; The Gini coefficient; Majority Voting; Median-mean ratio; Symmetric distribution

摘要

Majority voting and social evaluation functions are the main alternatives proposed in the literature for aggregating individual preferences. Despite these being very different, this paper shows that the ranking of income distributions, symmetric under the same transformation, by S-Gini consistent social evaluation functions and majority voting coincide if and only if the inequality index under consideration is the Gini coefficient. In this case, we show that the equally distributed equivalent income is equal to the median of the distribution. In addition, we find that the Gini coefficient is just an affine function of the median mean ratio. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.