ABSTRACT Research into the use of indicators in global governance emphasises the importance of which types of quantitative measurements of social phenomena are chosen, how they are chosen, and by whom. I contribute to this literature by applying these concepts to inequality measurements in the context of global income distribution. Any discussion of inequality includes an implicit normative comparison of distributions and the choice of measure will affect these comparisons. I argue that these seemingly technical methodological choices are actually value-laden, and may have effects on public perceptions and even policy outcomes. In particular, I focus on some influential research results concerning global income distribution and illustrate how a change in measurement choice can put these familiar findings in a new light. I also make a contribution by applying the concepts used to evaluate pro-poor growth – usually reserved for within country studies – to the question of global between-country convergence.

中文翻译：

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全球趋同的叙述和选择测度的力量

摘要关于在全球治理中使用指标的研究强调了选择哪种类型的社会现象定量测量，如何选择以及由谁进行量化的重要性。我通过在全球收入分配的背景下将这些概念应用于不平等衡量为这些文献做出了贡献。关于不平等的任何讨论都包括对分布的隐式规范比较，而度量的选择将影响这些比较。我认为这些看似技术性的方法选择实际上是有价值的，并且可能会影响公众的看法甚至政策结果。我特别关注一些有关全球收入分配的有影响力的研究结果，并说明度量选择的变化如何使这些熟悉的发现焕然一新。