Elsevier

Social Science Research

Volume 35, Issue 3, September 2006, Pages 779-802
Social Science Research

Reinvigorating relative deprivation: A new measure for a classic concept

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.07.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Over the last several decades increases in the income inequality in the United States have been well-documented. Yet, this assessment of growing prosperity for some but downslide for others is based on a specific interpretation of the concept “inequality.” This paper develops an alternative measure of inequality based on the concept “relative deprivation.” Relative deprivation refers to the frustration that is associated with a person’s relative position in a reference group. The proposed measure draws from the social science literature on poverty and improves upon an earlier measure, RD. Using data from the 1998 General Social Survey, I analyze the relationship between the proposed and earlier measures of relative deprivation, and two outcome variables: (1) self-rated health, and (2) happiness. While the measures produce similar results in predicting self-rated health, the proposed measure is a better predictor of happiness than the earlier measure. I conclude that the empirical and theoretical advantages of the proposed index make it an improved measure of relative deprivation.

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

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  • 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.

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