Multilateral Wellbeing Comparison in a Many Dimensioned World

Chapter 1: Measuring the Wellbeing of Groups

i. The Social Welfare Function

ii. The Benthamite (Utilitarian) Tradition

iii. The Pigou-Daltonian Principle: "Inequality is a Bad Thing"

iv. Polarization

v. Social Exclusion

vi. Equality of Opportunity

vii. The Rawlsian Principle and the Focus on Poverty

viii. What to Do Now?

Chapter 2: Statistical Matters

i. Introduction

ii. Probability Distributions

iii. Parametric and Non-Parametric Distributions

iv. Kernel Estimation

v. Stochastic Dominance Relations

vi. Comparing Distributions

vi. The Test Inconsistency Problem

Chapter 3: Complete Orderings: Index Types and the Ambiguity Problem

i. Introduction

ii. Indices for The Level of Wellbeing

iii. Some Unit Free Inequality Measures

iv. Inequality Adjusted Wellbeing Levels

vi. Multivariate Polarization Indices

vii. Poverty Measurement

viii. Equal Opportunity and Mobility Indices

ix. Exploring the Impact of Ambiguity

Chapter 4: Partial Orderings

i. Introduction

ii. Stochastic Dominance Criteria

iii. On Restricting the Criterion Space

iv. Stochastic Dominance and Inequality Orderings

v. Stochastic Dominance and Poverty Orderings

vii. The Problem of Ambiguity and Conditions for its Absence

viii. Determination of Ambiguity Groupings: Non-Ambiguity Cuts and Groups

ix. Tools for Ordering Groups and Quantifying Their Differences

Chapter 5: Comparing Latent Subgroups

i. Introduction

ii. Semi-Parametric Mixture Distributions

iii. The Probability of Class Membership of an Agent with an Income x

iv. Estimating the Model

v. Determining the Number of Classes

vi. Studying the Probability of Class Membership

vii. Comparing the Subgroups

Chapter 6: Ambiguity Comparability Segmentation and All That

i. Introduction

ii. An "Absence of Ambiguity" Criteria

iii. Dealing with Ambiguity with Two Groups

iv. Two Ambiguity Indices

v. Ambiguity in inequality measures

vi. Determination of Ambiguity Groupings: Un-Ambiguous Cuts and Groups

vii. An Empirical Application

viii. Conclusions

Chapter 7: Some Applications

i. Introduction

ii. An Example of Canadian Unidimensional Income Distribution Analysis

iii. A Multidimensional Equal Opportunity Example: German Educational Attainment

iv. An Example in Portfolio Choice

v. A Study of Net Crop Returns and Access to Land in Sub Sahara African Irrigation Schemes

vi. A Multidimensional Human Development Example