Second-Order Discrimination and Generalized Lorenz Dominance

Abstract

We propose a definition of second-order discrimination that does not require the reference distribution to first-order dominate the comparison one, and allows rankings of discrimination patterns when both the reference and the comparison distributions differ. It involves comparing the probabilities that randomly selected individuals in the reference and comparison distributions belong to subgroups having the same cumulative mean income, yields orderings of distributions equivalent to those from generalized Lorenz dominance, and allows orderings of discrimination patterns, partial or complete, across pairs of distributions. We compare discrimination against U.S. seniors (inter-distributional inequality between seniors and non-seniors) by ethnicity.