A Decomposition of the Atkinson Index through the Shapley Value

Abstract

This paper studies the economic inequality as a phenomenon resulting from two variables: The variable of responsibility which depends on the agents’ performance in the economy, and the variable of opportunity which is independent of the individuals’ performance in the economy. Identifying the contribution of the inequality of opportunity in the total inequality as the problem to be measured, we propose a decomposition of the Atkinson inequality index, by using one of the central solution concepts of cooperative game theory, called the Shapley value.