IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hes/wpaper/0250.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revealing The Diversity And Complexity Behind Long-Term Income Inequality In Latin America, 1920-2011

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo Astorga

    (Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI))

Abstract

This paper analyses and documents new long-term income inequality series for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela based on dynamic social tables with four occupational groups. This enables the calculation of comparable Overall (4 groups) and Labor Ginis (3 groups) with their between- and within-groups components. The main findings are: the absence of a unique inequality pattern over time; country outcomes characterized by trajectory diversity and level divergence during industrialization, and by commonality and convergence post 1980; the occurrence of inequality-levelling episodes with different timing and length; and significant changes in trends, but also evidence indicating persistence.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo Astorga, 2024. "Revealing The Diversity And Complexity Behind Long-Term Income Inequality In Latin America, 1920-2011," Working Papers 0250, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
  • Handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0250
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ehes.org/wp/EHES_250.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miguel Székely & Marianne Hilgert, 1999. "What's Behind the Inequality We Measure: An Investigation Using Latin American Data," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6458, Inter-American Development Bank.
    2. Peter C.B. Phillips & Sam Ouliaris & Joon Y. Park, 1988. "Testing for a Unit Root in the Presence of a Maintained Trend," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 880, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    3. Valpy FitzGerald, 2008. "Economic development and fluctuations in earnings inequality in the very long run: The evidence from Latin America 1900-2000," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 1028-1048.
    4. C., Francisco Rodriguez, 2000. "Factor Shares and Resource Booms Accounting for the Evolution of Venezuelan Inequality," WIDER Working Papers 295537, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Peter H. Lindert & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2016. "Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10670.
    6. Jørgen Modalsli, 2015. "Inequality in the very long run: inferring inequality from data on social groups," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 13(2), pages 225-247, June.
    7. Kenneth Roberts, 2012. "The Politics of Inequality and Redistribution in Latin America's Post-Adjustment Era," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-008, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. David De Ferranti & Guillermo E. Perry & Francisco H.G. Ferreira & Michael Walton, 2004. "Inequality in Latin America : Breaking with History?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15009.
    9. Gazeley, Ian & Holmes, Rose & Lanata Briones, Cecilia & Newell, Andrew T. & Reynolds, Kevin & Rufrancos, Hector Gutierrez, 2018. "Latin American Household Budget Surveys 1913-1970 and What They Tell Us about Economic Inequality among Households," IZA Discussion Papers 11430, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Robert C. Allen, 2019. "Class structure and inequality during the industrial revolution: lessons from England's social tables, 1688–1867," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 72(1), pages 88-125, February.
    11. Roberts, Kenneth, 2012. "The Politics of Inequality and Redistribution in Latin America's Post-Adjustment Era," WIDER Working Paper Series 008, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-08 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Marianne Hilgert & Miguel Sz kely, 1999. "Whats Behind the Inequality We Measure? An Investigation Using Latin American Data," LIS Working papers 234, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    14. Székely, Miguel & Hilgert, Marianne, 1999. "What's Behind the Inequality We Measure: An Investigation Using Latin American Data," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1309, Inter-American Development Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Javier Rodríguez Weber, 2018. "Alta desigualdad en América Latina: desde cuándo y por qué," Documentos de trabajo 51, Programa de Historia Económica, FCS, Udelar.
    2. Gabriel Burdin & Fernando Esponda & Andrea Vigorito, 2004. "Inequality and Top Income in Uruguay: A Comparison between Household Surveys and Income Tax Micro-data," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-02654095, HAL.
    3. Pedro Fandiño, 2022. "The role of social conventions on wage inequality: the Brazilian trajectory and the missed “Great Leveling”," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 435-455, July.
    4. Miguel Szekely & Nora Lustig & Martin Cumpa & Jose Antonio Mejia, 2004. "Do we know how much poverty there is?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 523-558.
    5. Szekely, Miguel, 2003. "The 1990s in Latin America: Another Decade of Persistent Inequality, but with Somewhat Lower Poverty," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 6(2), pages 1-26, November.
    6. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 39-82, March.
    7. Branko Milanovic, 2002. "True World Income Distribution, 1988 and 1993: First Calculation Based on Household Surveys Alone," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(476), pages 51-92, January.
    8. Timothy M. Smeeding, 2002. "Globalization, Inequality, and the Rich Countries of the G-20: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 48, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    9. Pablo Astorga, 2015. "Functional Inequality in Latin America: News from the Twentieth Century," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _135, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    10. Morley, Samuel A., 2001. "Distribution and growth in Latin America in an era of structural reform," TMD discussion papers 66, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    11. Milanovic, Branko, 2024. "How rich were the rich? An empirically-based taxonomy of pre-industrial bases of wealth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    12. Richard M. Bird & Eric M. Zolt, 2014. "Taxation and inequality in the Americas: Changing the fiscal contract?," Chapters, in: Richard M. Bird & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), Taxation and Development: The Weakest Link?, chapter 7, pages 193-237, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Laura Panza & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2021. "Always egalitarian? Australian earnings inequality 1870–1910," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 228-246, July.
    14. Leticia Arroyo Abad & Pablo Astorga Junquera, 2017. "Latin American earnings inequality in the long run," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 349-374, September.
    15. Vanessa S. Tchamyou & Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "The Role of ICT in Modulating the Effect of Education and Lifelong Learning on Income Inequality and Economic Growth in Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 261-274, September.
    16. José Palma, 2015. "Globalizing Inequality: ‘Centrifugal’ and ‘Centripetal’ Forces at Work," Working Papers id:7199, eSocialSciences.
    17. Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2019. "Occupational income scores and immigrant assimilation. Evidence from the Canadian census," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 114-122.
    18. Nora Lustig, 2020. "The ``missing rich'' in household surveys: causes and correction approaches," Working Papers 520, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    19. Maria Gomez-Leon & Giacomo Gabbuti, 2021. "Wars, Depression, and Fascism: Income Inequality in Italy, 1900-1950," Documentos de Trabajo - Lan Gaiak Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra 2104, Departamento de Economía - Universidad Pública de Navarra.
    20. Julio Martinez-Galarraga & Marc Prat, 2022. "Pre-industrial inequality in Catalonia," UB School of Economics Working Papers 2022/430, University of Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic development; industrialisation; income inequality; Latin America;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • N1 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hes:wpaper:0250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Paul Sharp (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehessea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.