calculations not reported here confirm that in all of the countries analysed the extent of reranking is greatest at the bottom of the income distribution they find remarkably stable inequality aversion for ireland over the period and large changes for the united kingdom becoming less egalitarian during the thatcher government and more inequalityaverse during new labour in the context of policy evaluation the usefulness of such an approach is however limited as it assumes that actual tax and transfer systems in each year are optimal and therefore cannot be improved upon by definition