Reinvigorating relative deprivation: A new measure for a classic concept☆
Introduction
One of the most prominent topics in social science research is social inequality. Research in this vein examines variation in specific social outcomes (e.g., occupation, earnings) both within and across societies [see O’Rand (2000) for a review of this literature]. The focus on variation in these outcomes is predicated on ethical claims that equality in them is both just and socially valuable (Rawls, 1992, Sen, 1992). As such, inequality in the social outcomes of interest is taken as indicative of injustice and low social well-being.
Inequality in a particular social outcome is often justified on the basis of ethical claims of equality in another social outcome. For example, equal treatment by a meritocratic system is often used to justify earnings inequality (Della Fave, 1980, Hochschild, 1981, Jasso and Rossi, 1977, Kluegel and Smith, 1986, Robinson and Bell, 1978, Sen, 1992). In some cases, however, inequality is not justified on the basis of equality in another social dimension. Earnings differentials for those with similar jobs is one such example (Grodsky and Pager, 2001, Hampton and Heywood, 1993). The existence of just and unjust inequalities necessitates a concept and measure of individual/group inequality that accounts for justifiable (and unjustifiable) differences in social outcomes. The concept of relative deprivation incorporates the logic of justifiable differences into the discussion and measurement of inequality.
The purpose of this paper is to re-integrate the concept of relative deprivation into the discussion of inequality and its measurement. I begin with an overview of the concepts inequality and relative deprivation. Then, I discuss the concept of relative deprivation and how it has been measured, arguing that the assumptions underlying earlier measures are not consistent with the definitions of relative deprivation in the social psychological literature. In response to this definitional inconsistency, I propose an alternative index of relative deprivation. I analyze the relationship of the proposed index and the earlier class of measures with the variables self-rated health and happiness using data from the 1998 General Social Survey. I conclude with a discussion of each measure and the overall implications of the paper.
Section snippets
Background
The last four decades have witnessed major changes in the level of earnings inequality in the US labor force. After a period of relatively constant inequality in the 1960s and early 1970s, the level of inequality rose steadily (Blackburn and Bloom, 1987, Danziger and Gottschalk, 1995, Gottschalk and Joyce, 1995, Karoly, 1993, Karoly and Burtless, 1995, Katz and Murphy, 1992, Morris et al., 1994). The standard interpretation of these recent economic trends is related to a common definition of
Earlier measures relative deprivation
To generate the earlier class of relative deprivation measures, we first assume there is a continuous score (e.g., earnings) distribution. Then, we use each score unit—represented by the score values in the interval y to y + Δy (where Δy → 0)—in the score distribution to represent Runciman’s “X”; the desired good (Hey and Lambert, 1980, Kakwani, 1984, Stark and Taylor, 1989, Stark and Yitzhaki, 1988, Yitzhaki, 1979, Yitzhaki, 1982). If we let F (y) be the cumulative frequency distribution of scores,
Empirical analysis
While the earlier and proposed measures have large theoretical differences, there remains the question “do they produce substantively different results in empirical analyses?” To answer this question I perform a logistic regression analysis using data on health and happiness. The aim of this analysis is to ascertain the relationship between the two measures of relative deprivation and an individual’s health and happiness, in the presence of other predictor variables.
Discussion
I proposed a measure of inequality associated with an alternative definition, relative deprivation. The concept of inequality is typically represented as a score distribution’s deviation from uniformity, such as the Gini coefficient (Allison, 1978, Atkinson, 1970). Inequality, in this sense, is an estimate of the social welfare (or desirability) of a particular score distribution. In contrast, relative deprivation refers to the feelings associated with an individual’s position in a reference
References (87)
On the measurement of inequality
Journal of Economic Theory
(1970)Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
(1995)- et al.
Crime: social disorganization and relative deprivation
Social Science and Medicine
(1999) Unequal inequalities I
Journal of Economic Theory
(1976)Relative deprivation and economic welfare
European Economic Review
(1982)Measures of inequality
American Sociological Review
(1978)- et al.
Who should get what? Fairness judgments of the distribution of earnings
American Journal of Sociology
(1978) - et al.
Income inequality indices and deprivation: a generalization
Quarterly Journal of Economics
(1985) - et al.
Earnings and income inequality in the United States
Population and Development Review
(1987) The conditions underlying race riots as portrayed by multidimensional scalogram analysis: a reanalysis of Lieberson and Silverman’s data
American Sociological Review
(1968)
Rethinking the sociological measurement of poverty
Social Forces
A comparison of measures of inequality of income distribution
The Economic Journal
Foundations of Social Theory
Relative deprivation revisited: a response to Miller, Bolce, and Halligan
The American Political Science Review
America Unequal
Toward a theory of revolution
American Sociological Review
General Social Survey, 1998
The meek shall not inherit the earth: self-evaluation and the legitimacy of stratification
American Sociological Review
The relationship between income and subjective well-being: relative or absolute?
Social Indicators Research
Subjective well-being: three decades of progress
Psychological Bulletin
How much income is enough? Measuring public judgements
Public Opinion Quarterly
A cybernetic theory of stress, coping, and well-being in organizations
The Academy of Management Review
Distress and perceived health: mechanisms of health decline
Journal of Health and Social Behavior
A class of decomposable poverty measures
Econometrica
Subgroup consistent poverty indices
Econometrica
The embeddedness of social comparison
Race, gender, and the pursuit of happiness and satisfaction
National Journal of Sociology
The impact of technological change, deindustrialization, and internationalization of trade on earnings inequality: an international perspective
The structure of disadvantage: individual and occupational determinants of the black–white wage gap
American Sociological Review
Do workers accurately perceive gender wage discrimination?
Industrial and Labor Relations Review
Relative deprivation and the gini coefficient: comment
Quarterly Journal of Economics
What’s Fair American Beliefs about Distributive Justice
Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation
The continuing significance of race revisited: a study of race, class, and quality of life in America, 1972-1996
American Sociological Review
Self-rated health and mortality: a review of twenty-seven community studies
Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Methods for the theoretical and empirical analysis of comparison processes
Sociological Methodology
Exploring the sense of justice about grades
European Sociological Review
Distributive justice and earned income
American Sociological Review
On a class of poverty measures
Econometrica
The relative deprivation curve and its applications
Journal of Business and Economic Statistics
The trend in inequality among families, individuals and workers in the United States: A twenty-five year perspective
Demographic change, rising earnings inequality and the distribution of personal well-being, 1959–1989
Demography
Changes in relative wages, 1963–1987: supply and demand factors
Quarterly Journal of Economics
Cited by (0)
- ☆
Funding for this research was partially provided by NIMH 1R01MH58009-01. I thank Richard Easterlin, David James, Shasta Jones, Scott Long, Douglas Massey, Brian Powell, Samuel Preston, Robert Robinson, Jason Schnittker, Herb Smith, Tukufu Zuberi, the participants of the Political Economy Seminar in the Department of Sociology at Indiana University, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on earlier drafts. Quincy Thomas Stewart is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington. His research interests include inequality, social statistics, race relations, and mortality. His recent methodological research pertains to modeling mortality and racial discrimination, while his recent substantive work concerns racial differentials in child poverty, mortality, and mental well-being.