A social welfare function (SWF) is a function that associates an income distribution
to a social welfare score.
In line with Dalton (1920Dalton, Hugh. 1920. “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes.”The Economic Journal 30 (September). https://doi.org/10.2307/2223525.) tradition, the most well-known SWF case is the Atkinson index,
discussed in the next subsection.
The Atkinson index is not the only SWF-based inequality measure —
Dalton (1920Dalton, Hugh. 1920. “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes.”The Economic Journal 30 (September). https://doi.org/10.2307/2223525.) had already presented another SWF-based inequality measure.
However, the Atkinson index was shown to follow a broader set of important inequality
measurement axioms.
4.8 Social Welfare Function-based Measures
A social welfare function (SWF) is a function that associates an income distribution to a social welfare score. In line with Dalton (1920Dalton, Hugh. 1920. “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes.” The Economic Journal 30 (September). https://doi.org/10.2307/2223525.) tradition, the most well-known SWF case is the Atkinson index, discussed in the next subsection. The Atkinson index is not the only SWF-based inequality measure — Dalton (1920Dalton, Hugh. 1920. “The Measurement of the Inequality of Incomes.” The Economic Journal 30 (September). https://doi.org/10.2307/2223525.) had already presented another SWF-based inequality measure. However, the Atkinson index was shown to follow a broader set of important inequality measurement axioms.