Atkinson Index is a welfare-based measure of inequality, representing the percentage of total income that a given society would have to sacrifice in order to have (more) equally distributed incomes (more equal shares of income between its citizens). This measure depends on the degree of society aversion to inequality, where a higher value entails greater social utility or willingness by individuals to accept smaller incomes in exchange for a more equal distribution.

In the calculation of this variable, the aversion parameter (epsilon) is set to 0.5.