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Living Standard, Social Welfare, and the Redistribution of Income in a Heterogeneous Population
Author(s) -
EBERT UDO
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of public economic theory
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-9779
pISSN - 1097-3923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9779.2008.00390.x
Subject(s) - redistribution (election) , economics , welfare , redistribution of income and wealth , standard of living , population , social welfare , public economics , microeconomics , sociology , law , market economy , demography , political science , public good , politics
The paper considers the redistribution of income in a population of households which may differ by type. The redistribution is based on (differences in) living standard and a principle of between ‐ type ‐progressive transfers (BTPT). We characterize the relationship between a social welfare ordering satisfying the BTPT principle and the concept of living standard the principle is based on. It turns out that there is a close link: The ordering of living standard can be derived from the social welfare ordering. Conversely, the class of welfare orderings fulfilling the BTPT principle for a given concept of living standard can be completely described.