Why ethical measures of inequality need interpersonal comparisons
Theory and Decision. An International Journal for Multidisciplinary Advances in Decision Science, vol. 7, no. 4, 1976, pp. 263–274
Abstract
An ethical measure of income inequality corresponds to a social ordering of income distributions. Without interpersonal comparisons, the only possible social orderings are dictatorial, so there can be no ethical inequality measure. Interpersonal comparisons allow a very much richer set of possible social orderings, and the construction of ethical measures of inequality.
