Introducing the main theories of distributional justice the book covers utilitarianism and welfare economics, moving on to Rawls's social contract and the Sen/Nussbaum capability approach with a refreshingly readable style. There is a chapter covering the position of mothers and children in theories of justice. The book then studies empirical methods used in analysing the distribution of economic goods, covering Lorenz curves and inequality measures. The concepts of income, wealth and economic goods are comprehensively discussed, with a particular view to their role in theories of justice. This book is an important read for economists and other social scientists, as well as philosophers who want to quantify social and economic justice INDICE 1. Introduction 2. About distibutional justice 3. Deserts and fruits of our labour 4. Welfarism: utilitarianism and welfare economics 5. John Rawls's theory of justice: the social contract 6. Equality of what? Resources and capabilities 7. Libertarianism and Marxism 8. Children and their mothers 9. Income and wealth 10. Household income 11. What we should measure? 12. Lorenz curves and inequality measures 13. Social evaluation of inequality 14. Some inequality measures 15. Poverty 16. Decomposition of inequality measures