This book offers a systematic analysis of the diverse ways of measuring income inequality and their broader application in the evaluation of social welfare. It opens with an in-depth study of inequality indices, the conceptual instruments for measuring and interpreting income dispersion, which extends from a description of their basic properties to a comparison of the value judgments that underlie them. Special attention goes to analyzing the decomposability of indices under differing criteria, as a means to elucidate the origin and nature of inequality.

This makes it possible to calculate which portion of social inequality is due to income differences between and within social groups or regions, and which is attributable to the remuneration of the different production factors. It also facilitates the study of equal opportunities by helping separate inequality due to circumstances from inequality deriving from the decisions of the individual.

Among its distinguishing features is the effort made to integrate the analysis of inequality within a broader evaluation of social welfare. The authors present a precise conceptual framework which they apply to the historical study of welfare development in Spain and its regions, the analysis of equal opportunities, and a quantification of the economic cost of gender-based wage discrimination.

This publication is accordingly both a handbook for teachers and students and a reference work for researchers and scholars concerned with income distribution and social welfare evaluation.