The measures of income inequality that have been proposed in the economic literature fall broadly into two categories; by objective measures and normative ones.
Objective measures such as the Gini index and the coefficient of variation do not satisfy the normative criteria based upon utilitarianism, especially the principle of diminishing transfers.
On the other hand, normative measures such as Atkinson's measure and the average logarithm of relative income which try to measure inequality in terms of normative notion of social welfare so that a higher degree of inequality corresponds to a lower level of social welfare for a given total income are criticized because of the lack of objectivity.
The main purpose of this thesis is to propose three alternative measures of income inequality which combine normative features with objective ones.
One is the weighted Gini index that is the linearly-weighted sum of discrepancy between the Lorentz curve and the perfectly-equal line.
The other is the coefficient of mean variation of square root that is mean variation of square-root transformations of relative incomes.
Also, in the egalitrian context of inequality the mean difference of Legarithm which is the mean difference of welfare levels of all individuals is proposed.
Finally, by using the proposed measures of income inequality as well as traditional ones, the income inequalities of Korea, Taiwan, Japan are measured and compared as on empirical study.
