Measuring social welfare, energy and inequality in Germany

The Atkinson index is an inequality measure based on a social welfare function. We will use the Atkinson index as an analytical tool to examine the interactions between economic activity and energy services. The Atkinson index has a specific feature for the calculation of distribution. The index uses the epsilon parameter to explicitly reveal the inequality aversion of society. Epsilon defines how sensitively the Atkinson index should react to income inequalities. The results of applying the Atkinson index could make a significant contribution to science and policy debates on income and energy equity in the context of sustainable development.

► The Atkinson index provides a tool to measure the distribution of income, consumption and energy consumption.
► The epsilon parameter of the Atkinson index explicitly reveals the inequality aversion of society.
► Our distribution analysis based on the Atkinson index makes a contribution to the social debate about distributional justice.
► And also a contribution to science and policy debates on income and energy equity in the context of sustainable development.