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Inequality in History: A Long-Run View

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  • Alfani, Guido

Abstract

This article provides an overview of long-term trends in income and wealth inequality, from ca. 1300 until today. It discusses recent acquisitions in terms of inequality measurement, building upon earlier research and systematically connecting preindustrial, industrial and post-industrial tendencies. It shows that in the last seven centuries or so, inequality of both income and wealth had tended to grow continuously, with two exceptions: the century or so following the Black Death pandemic of 1347-52, and the period from the beginning of World War I until the mid-1970s. It discusses recent encompassing hypotheses about the factors leading to long-run inequality change, highlighting their relative merits and faults and arguing for the need to pay close attention to the historical context. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

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  • Alfani, Guido, 2023. "Inequality in History: A Long-Run View," SocArXiv 94dgs, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:94dgs
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/94dgs
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Guido Alfani, 2021. "Economic Inequality in Preindustrial Times: Europe and Beyond," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 3-44, March.
    2. Peter H. Lindert & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2016. "Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10670.
    3. Guido Alfani, 2022. "Epidemics, Inequality, and Poverty in Preindustrial and Early Industrial Times," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 3-40, March.
    4. Lawrence E. Blume & Steven N. Durlauf, 2015. "Capital in the Twenty-First Century: A Review Essay," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(4), pages 749-777.
    5. Giacomo Gabbuti, 2021. "Labor shares and inequality: insights from Italian economic history, 1895–19701 [‘A paradise for profiteers’? The importance and treatment of profits during the first world war]," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 25(2), pages 355-378.
    6. Guido Alfani & Francesco Ammannati, 2017. "Long‐term trends in economic inequality: the case of the Florentine state, c. 1300–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(4), pages 1072-1102, November.
    7. Rota, Mauro & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2020. "Italy and the Little Divergence in Wages and Prices: New Data, New Results," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 931-960, December.
    8. Neil Cummins, 2022. "The hidden wealth of English dynasties, 1892–2016," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 667-702, August.
    9. A. B. Atkinson, 2004. "Income Tax and Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 168(1), pages 123-141, march.
    10. J. L. Van Zanden, 1995. "Tracing the beginning of the Kuznets curve: western Europe during the early modern period," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(4), pages 643-664, November.
    11. Guido Alfani, 2013. "Plague in seventeenth-century Europe and the decline of Italy: an epidemiological hypothesis," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 17(4), pages 408-430, November.
    12. Debraj Ray, 2015. "Nit-Piketty: A Comment on Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty First Century," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 16(01), pages 19-25, May.
    13. Lindert, Peter H, 1986. "Unequal English Wealth since 1670," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(6), pages 1127-1162, December.
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