Economic Inequality

There are two questions at the core of economic inequality. The first question is what causes inequality and how is it measured. The second question is why is there an interest in inequality in the first place. Although the first question is primarily one of positive economics, addressing it raises some of the ethical issues contained in the second question. For instance, the factors that determine distribution and cause inequality obviously affect why one would be interested in the question of inequality and why it may be judged to be undesirable or not. If inequality arises due to choices some people make, one may argue that it is not something that society needs to address with redistributive policies. In addition, without addressing questions such as ...