An axiomatic characterization of the Theil inequality ordering

Casilda Lasso de la Vega; Ana Urrutia; Oscar Volij

doi:10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6

An axiomatic characterization of the Theil inequality ordering

Casilda Lasso de la Vega, Ana Urrutia, Oscar Volij

Department of Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 axioms are ordinal implications of Theil decomposability, the central axiom in previous characterizations of the Theil index. To the best of our knowledge, the present is the first fully ordinal characterization of this index.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	757-776
Number of pages	20
Journal	Economic Theory
Volume	54
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6
State	Published - 1 Nov 2013

Keywords

Axiomatic characterization
Decomposability
Income inequality
Theil index

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Economics and Econometrics

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6

Cite this

@article{623c016cc42e4495a2c1b9352ddd07b6,

title = "An axiomatic characterization of the Theil inequality ordering",

abstract = "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 axioms are ordinal implications of Theil decomposability, the central axiom in previous characterizations of the Theil index. To the best of our knowledge, the present is the first fully ordinal characterization of this index.",

keywords = "Axiomatic characterization, Decomposability, Income inequality, Theil index",

author = "{Lasso de la Vega}, Casilda and Ana Urrutia and Oscar Volij",

note = "Funding Information: We thank the Spanish Ministerio de Educaci{\'o}n y Ciencia (project SEJ2009-11213) for research support. We also thank Mikel Bilbao for his invaluable help. ",

year = "2013",

month = nov,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6",

language = "English",

volume = "54",

pages = "757--776",

journal = "Economic Theory",

issn = "0938-2259",

publisher = "Springer New York",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - An axiomatic characterization of the Theil inequality ordering

AU - Lasso de la Vega, Casilda

AU - Urrutia, Ana

AU - Volij, Oscar

N1 - Funding Information: We thank the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (project SEJ2009-11213) for research support. We also thank Mikel Bilbao for his invaluable help.

PY - 2013/11/1

Y1 - 2013/11/1

N2 - 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 axioms are ordinal implications of Theil decomposability, the central axiom in previous characterizations of the Theil index. To the best of our knowledge, the present is the first fully ordinal characterization of this index.

AB - 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 axioms are ordinal implications of Theil decomposability, the central axiom in previous characterizations of the Theil index. To the best of our knowledge, the present is the first fully ordinal characterization of this index.

KW - Axiomatic characterization

KW - Decomposability

KW - Income inequality

KW - Theil index

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84891161472&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6

DO - 10.1007/s00199-012-0739-6

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84891161472

SN - 0938-2259

VL - 54

SP - 757

EP - 776

JO - Economic Theory

JF - Economic Theory

IS - 3

ER -

An axiomatic characterization of the Theil inequality ordering

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this