Income distribution evaluation and the law of one price

The growing literature on evaluating changes in the distribution of income has led recently to a consideration of the conditions under which such evaluation is possible without reference to existing prices. This paper provides a complete characterization of the class of preferences/social orderings for which this is possible in the case where the law of one price is not assumed— different individuals may face different price vectors. The relationship of this result to those which are known for the one-price case is also briefly considered.