Introduction:

Mueller presents a new concept of measurement derived from information theory that is capable of describing various forms and dimensions of inequality in a very robust way. He uses the term “entropy” to describe the number of information steps necessary to order observations, whereby a high number of steps are required to describe a quite heterogeneous, i.e., very unequal state. In standardized form, this indicator can thus allow the comparison of measures that up until now were categorically not directly comparable, as so often emerge in international data. By applying this form of measurement directly to a selection of Western states on the basis of the International Social Survey Program, a number of politically relevant questions can be studied: for example, whether the participation in education according to social group corresponds with the later distribution of these groups among professional careers, or whether the rate of return from education strictly corresponds to the level of human capital investment. This shows that a meritocratic derivation of income is already called into question by the mere existence of gender discrimination in income distribution.