بررسي تغييرات سطح رفاه اجتماعي مناطق شهري و روستايي

Measuring Changes in Social Welfare Level in Urban and Rural Areas - Case Study: Iran, 1989-1999

The paper investigates changes in the social welfare in Iran between the periods of two development plans from 1989 to 1999. This period is marked with the implementation of certain structural adjustment policies. This paper attempts to identify groups that were made better off or worse off in terms of their real income. For this purpose both ordinal and cardinal ranking measures were used. The ordinal ranking measure uses Lorenz dominance and generalized Lorenz criteria. The cardinal ranking method is based on social evaluation method which is an indicator of all possible social states. Changes in social welfare which is obtained from cardinal ranking measure and calculated on the basis of real income are related to the measured changes in income and inequality. Accordingly, the welfare level in urban and rural areas shows a positive trend while inequality in both areas was aggravated in this period.