Measuring Income Polarization Using an Enlarged Middle Class

Working Paper 2012-271

Abstract

In this paper, a new class of polarization measures is derived axiomatically. The concept of polarization is here identified with the decline of the middle class. In particular, we extend the definition of middle class towards a more realistic framework: the middle class is defined in terms of central interval rather than median income. Then polarization is

Authors: Chiara Gigliarano, Pietro Muliere.