ABSTRACT
Inequality theory provides two types of criteria for evaluating inequality measures, conceptual and technical, discussions of which are widely scattered throughout the social science and statistics literature. The conceptual criteria include a set of essential principles in terms of which one conceptually defines inequality, that is, determines the major properties that one's conception of inequality shall possess. To emphasize the importance of inequality theory, Allison (1978:865) warned that "the choice of an inequality measure is properly regarded as a choice among alternative definitions of inequality rather than as a choice among alternative ways of measuring a single theoretical construct." These conceptual criteria translate into mathematical properties of the indexes. The technical criteria primarily concern index characteristics that affect convenience of computation or interpretation.
