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This book uses welfare theoretic and descriptive approaches to present recent advances in the study of inequality, polarization and poverty. It is filled with graphs, charts, and non-technical explanations of technical terms and mathematical operations.

In his Essays in Biography, Keynes (1951) wrote that"the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts.He must reach a high standard in several different directionsand must combine talents not often found together. He mustbe mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher in somedegree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. Hemust contemplate the particular in terms of the general, andtouch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. Hemust study the present in the light of the past for the purposesof the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions mustlie currently outside his regard. He must be purposeful anddisinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptibleas an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician."In our eyes, Professor Nanak Kakwani, in whose honour we edited thisSpecial Issue of the Journal of Income Distribution, possesses most, if notall, of the qualities that Keynes considered essential in a good economist.

This paper proposes a simple algorithm based on a matrix formulation to compute the Esteban and Ray (ER) polarization index. It then shows how the algorithm introduced leads to quite a simple decomposition of polarization by income sources. Such a breakdown was not available hitherto. The decomposition we propose will thus allow one to determine the sign, as well as the magnitude, of the impact of the various income sources on the ER polarization index. A simple empirical illustration based on EU data is provided.

The parameterization of income distributions using Lorenz Curves is a useful technique to analyze the characteristics of income inequality within a given population. It provides a way of describing how data are generated, why the level of inequality is what it is, and how these factors impact poorer sections of the population. This book brings together classic papers in the field, including Camilo Dagum's most influential contribution, survey papers outlining the state-of-the-art of the field, and cutting-edge research contributions. While providing a thorough overview of the methodology of income distribution modeling, the book emphasizes its relevance on development economics and its importance for policy makers who design and assess poverty alleviation and income redistribution policies.

This paper has three goals. First, we wish to compare three multidimensional approaches to poverty and check to what extent they identify the same households as poor. Second, we aim at better understanding the determinants of poverty by estimating Logit regressions with five categories of explanatory variables: size of the household, age of the head of the household, her gender, marital status and status at work. Third, we introduce a decomposition procedure proposed recently in the literature, the so-called Shapley decomposition, in order to determine the exact marginal impact of each of the categories of explanatory variables. Our empirical analysis is based on data made available by the European Community Household Panel (ECHP). We used its third wave and selected five countries: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

This volume is divided into five parts, each one including two chapters. Part I is devoted to 'Information Theory and Segregation Measurement', part II to 'The Gini Index and the Measurement of Segregation', part III to 'Measuring Segregation with Ordered Categories', part IV to 'Exploring Changes in Segregation' and part V to 'Wage Inequality and Segregation'. Let us now review into more details each of these ten chapters