This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Nielsen, F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Economic Inequality, Pareto, and Sociology

The Route Not Taken

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, francois_nielsen{at}unc.edu

Economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) developed a general theory of social inequality inspired by his discovery of similarities in the shape of the income distribution across societies. Pareto’s approach is characterized by (a) a focus on individual, continuous income variation rather than discrete classes; (b) attention paid to the entire socioeconomic distribution rather than summary statistics; (c) an emphasis on social heterogeneity (labor supply) rather than a view of social structure as a collection of empty places (labor demand); and (d) a conception of the inequality structure—and movements of individuals within it—as resulting from the distribution of human abilities interacting with a structure of opportunities (i.e., a structure of social selection). Pareto’s vision—part of the common patrimony of economics and sociology—foreshadows emergent approaches to socioeconomic inequality.

Key Words: income inequality • Vilfredo Pareto • circulation of elites

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?