Sufficientarianism and the Measurement of Inequality

Titelangaben

Schuessler, Rudolf:
Sufficientarianism and the Measurement of Inequality.
In: Moral Philosophy and Politics. Bd. 6 (2019) Heft 1 . - S. 147-173.
ISSN 2194-5624
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mopp-2017-0057

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Abstract

What impact should sufficientarianism have on the measurement of inequality? Like other theories of justice, sufficientarianism influences how economic inequality is conceived. For the purpose of measurement, its stan-
dards of justice can be approximated by income-based thresholds of sufficiency. At which income level could a threshold of having enough be pegged in OECD
countries? What would it imply for standard indicators of inequality, such as decile comparisons of cumulated income, income spreads, or the Gini coefficient? This paper suggests some answers to these questions, showing that
sufficientarian ideas could make a difference with respect to the measurement of inequality in a society.