TY - JOUR
T1 - Reinvigorating relative deprivation
T2 - A new measure for a classic concept
AU - Stewart, Quincy Thomas
N1 - Funding Information:
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.
Copyright:
Copyright 2006 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006/9
Y1 - 2006/9
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Distributive justice
KW - Happiness
KW - Health
KW - Inequality
KW - Relative deprivation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33747344808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33747344808&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.07.001
DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.07.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33747344808
SN - 0049-089X
VL - 35
SP - 779
EP - 802
JO - Social Science Research
JF - Social Science Research
IS - 3
ER -