Measuring Inequality Attitudes by Defective Leaky Buckets A Comment

Abstract

Amiel et al. (1999) use the Atkinson and the Gini social welfare functions to measure income inequality attitudes based on data from leaky-bucket experiments. Yet the experimental de-sign does not allow their subjects to perceive income inequality according to the Gini or the Atkinson inequality measures. Moreover, their experimental design tries to measure inequal-ity aversion by forcing their subjects to behave in accordance with inequality predilection. --Inequality aversion,leaky-bucket experiment.