Cities and Inequality

Michelangeli, Alessandra; Peluso, Eugenio

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2830136

Cities and Inequality

25 Pages Posted: 27 Aug 2016 Last revised: 27 Dec 2016

See all articles by Alessandra Michelangeli

Alessandra Michelangeli

Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Department of Economics, Management and Statistics (DEMS); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for European Studies (CefES); Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca - Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Economics, Psychology & Social Sciences (CISEPS)

Eugenio Peluso

University of Verona - Department of Economics

Date Written: August 25, 2016

Abstract

We propose an innovative methodology to measure inequality between cities. If an even distribution of amenities across cities is assumed to increase the average well-being in a given country, inequality between cities can be evaluated through a multidimensional index of the Atkinson (1970) type. This index is shown to be decomposable into the sum of inequality indices computed on the marginal distributions of the amenities across cities, plus a residual term accounting for their correlation. We apply this methodology to assess inequality between Italian cities in terms of the distribution of public infrastructures, local services, economic and environmental conditions.

Keywords: Inequality; inequality aversion; social welfare; city

JEL Classification: R11; R12 ; R23

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Michelangeli, Alessandra and Peluso, Eugenio, Cities and Inequality (August 25, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2830136 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2830136