Intermediate inequality and welfare

We introduce a new centrist or intermediate inequality concept, between the usual relative and absolute notions, which is shown to be a variant of the a-ray invariant inequality measures in P®ngsten and Seidl (1997). We say that distributions x and y have the same …x; p†-inequality if the total income di ̈erence between them is allocated among the individuals as follows: 100p% preserving income shares in x, and 100…1ÿ p†% in equal absolute amounts. This notion can be made as operational as current standard methods in Shorrocks (1983).