Pre-Industrial Inequality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Milanovic, Branko; Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.
• 署名单位: The World Bank
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02403.x
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 255-272
• 关键词: economic-growth; income; curve

摘要

Is inequality largely the result of the Industrial Revolution? Or, were pre-industrial incomes as unequal as they are today? This article infers inequality across individuals within each of the 28 pre-industrial societies, for which data were available, using what are known as social tables. It applies two new concepts: the inequality possibility frontier and the inequality extraction ratio. They compare the observed income inequality to the maximum feasible inequality that, at a given level of income, might have been 'extracted' by those in power. The results give new insights into the connection between inequality and economic development in the very long run.