Welfare, state, and values: the winding road of the normative approach to inequality measurement (1912–1970)

Abstract

Embedded in the general history of income inequality measures, this paper seeks to understand the evolution of the normative approach to inequality measurement. To this end, it undertakes a joint consideration of selected works by Pigou, Dalton, Kolm, and Atkinson that have not previously been discussed in connection with each other. Noting that the normative approach to inequality measurement was neglected for almost five decades, the paper inquires into the reasons for this, proposing two explanations: first, that the normative approach was eclipsed by the pretensions to axiological neutrality supposedly proper to economic science; second, that there was a drift towards statistics in the study of personal income distribution, where the measurement of inequality became established as a central axis. Finally, the paper discusses the different factors that contributed to the rebirth of the normative approach and highlights the ways in which the new contributions manifest an awareness of previous discussions of values in economics.