ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the income distribution literature on relative deprivation. Following Runciman (1966) the definition of relative deprivation adopted is the following: 'We can roughly say that [a person] is relatively deprived of X when (i) he does not have X, (ii) he sees some other person or persons, which may include himself at some previous or expected time, as having X, (iii) he wants X, and (iv) he sees it as feasible that he should have X’ (Runciman, 1966, p.10). Runciman further adds: ‘The magnitude of a relative deprivation is the extent of the difference between the desired situation and that of the person desiring it.' The feeling of income deprivation of an individual is hence assumed to arise from the comparison of his income level with that of all the richer individuals in his reference group. The literature has assumed, so far, that the entire society belongs to the reference group of each individual, leaving aside the problem of the identification of the appropriate reference group (see Runciman, 1966, Ch.2 for a clear discussion of this issue). An attempt to move towards this direction in the measurement of deprivation is Silber and Verme (forthcoming).
