What is social inequality and why does it matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe
What is social inequality and why does it matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe
As distinct from income or wealth inequality, ‘social inequality’ is currently poorly understood and, at best, unevenly measured. We conceptualize social inequality as the relative position of individuals along a number of dimensions that measure achieved outcomes and, innovatively, expectations about future outcomes. Using data from 12 Central and Eastern European countries, we find that cross-national patterns of social inequality differ significantly from patterns derived from income inequality measures. Moreover, our measure of social inequality is much better correlated than income inequality with other country differences such as higher levels of economic performance and human development, and stronger political institutions.
social and income inequality, capabilities, measurement, Central and Eastern Europe, human development, political institutions
239-248
Binelli, Chiara
9c592dc3-5794-423c-8532-c0f82a1c3639
Loveless, Matthew
cf788d42-fc84-41df-919c-f49fc3ebd54a
Whitefield, Stephen
9cdb5032-95f8-4125-9a6a-dd9042107fa4
June 2015
Binelli, Chiara
9c592dc3-5794-423c-8532-c0f82a1c3639
Loveless, Matthew
cf788d42-fc84-41df-919c-f49fc3ebd54a
Whitefield, Stephen
9cdb5032-95f8-4125-9a6a-dd9042107fa4
Binelli, Chiara, Loveless, Matthew and Whitefield, Stephen
(2015)
What is social inequality and why does it matter? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe.
World Development, 70, .
(doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.007).
Abstract
As distinct from income or wealth inequality, ‘social inequality’ is currently poorly understood and, at best, unevenly measured. We conceptualize social inequality as the relative position of individuals along a number of dimensions that measure achieved outcomes and, innovatively, expectations about future outcomes. Using data from 12 Central and Eastern European countries, we find that cross-national patterns of social inequality differ significantly from patterns derived from income inequality measures. Moreover, our measure of social inequality is much better correlated than income inequality with other country differences such as higher levels of economic performance and human development, and stronger political institutions.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 3 February 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 2 March 2015
Published date: June 2015
Keywords:
social and income inequality, capabilities, measurement, Central and Eastern Europe, human development, political institutions
Organisations:
Economics
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 377960
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377960
ISSN: 0305-750X
PURE UUID: 33d43396-669b-46e7-9415-ae134a62b2f7
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 24 Jun 2015 13:37
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:13
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Chiara Binelli
Author:
Matthew Loveless
Author:
Stephen Whitefield
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics