Revisiting the Measurement of Polarization

TL;DR

This paper revisits Esteban and Ray's polarization model, relaxing the assumption of infinite divisibility to develop a broader, more flexible family of polarization indices that align better with empirical data.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized family of polarization indices by relaxing the infinite divisibility assumption, addressing limitations of the original model.

Findings

Broader family of polarization indices developed

Avoids counter-intuitive rankings in polarization measurement

Enhances empirical applicability of polarization indices

Abstract

We revisit Esteban and Ray's (1994) seminal model of polarization. Their main result (unnecessarily) relies on the assumption that individuals are infinitely divisible, which imposes strong restrictions on admissible polarization indices. We show that relaxing this assumption yields a broader family of indices consistent with the original axioms. The resulting indices avoid counter-intuitive rankings that arise when using results on the original paper and provide greater flexibility for empirical applications.