Sobre la desigualdad de las naciones

Recent empirical studies have shown that the degree of income inequality of nations remains more or less constant over time. The degree of inequality is a structural trait of countries. Those countries that were born to capitalism as very unequal continue to be so; similarly, those countries that were born less unequal remain so. The trajectory of the income inequality of countries shows path dependence, that is, history counts. This paper attempts to make some progress in the theoretical explanation of this empirical regularity The basic elements of a general theory of capitalism are presented. This theory assumes that there exist several types of capitalism, which can be reduced to a single general theory. This general theory -called here exclusion theory- predicts the viscosity that has empirically been observed in the inequality of nations.