Ümberjaotust

Ümberjaotust is an Estonian noun meaning redistribution. It denotes the process of changing how something is shared or allocated among people, groups, or categories by moving resources, tasks, or probabilities from one recipient to another to achieve a different distribution.

In economics and public policy, ümberjaotust typically refers to redistribution of income or wealth through instruments such as taxation, transfers, subsidies, and public services. The aim is to reduce inequality, provide basic security, and fund collective goods. Policy design involves trade-offs between equity and efficiency, and can influence incentives, work effort, and economic growth, depending on the tools and their scale.

In other fields, the term can describe similar reallocation concepts. In statistics and data analysis, it can refer to reweighting probability mass or redistributing allocated data among categories. In computing and operations research, it may describe load balancing and reallocation of tasks or resources to optimize performance and resilience.

Measuring redistribution typically uses indicators such as the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, and other inequality metrics for outcomes, along with budgetary and welfare metrics to assess costs and effects. Debates focus on effectiveness, administrative costs, and potential unintended consequences like dependency, crowding out private activity, or reduced efficiency.

Examples include tax-and-transfer systems, social security and pension schemes, public education and healthcare funding, and urban planning approaches that reallocate housing or land use to address disparities.