IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2015-028.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Changing Income Inequality and Structural Transformation: The Case of Botswana 1921-2010

Author

Listed:
  • Ellen Hillbom
  • Jutta Bolt

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa we find some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Nevertheless, we generally know very little about the historical development of inequality. In this paper we look at how inequality developed in colonial and post-colonial Botswana. We show that income inequality started rising in the 1940s and peaked in the mid-1970s about the time that the economy switched from cattle to diamonds. Since the 1990s, it has then declined somewhat.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellen Hillbom & Jutta Bolt, 2015. "Changing Income Inequality and Structural Transformation: The Case of Botswana 1921-2010," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-028, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2015-028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/wp2015-028.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bolt, Jutta & Hillbom, Ellen, 2015. "Social Structures and Income Distribution in Colonial sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Bechuanaland Protectorate 1936-1964," African Economic History Working Paper 11/2013, African Economic History Network.
    2. Todaro, Michael P, 1969. "A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 138-148, March.
    3. Ellen Hillbom, 2014. "Cattle, Diamonds And Institutions: Main Drivers Of Botswana'S Economic Development, 1850 To Present," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 155-176, March.
    4. Bourguignon, F. & Morrisson, C., 1990. "Income distribution, development and foreign trade : A cross-sectional analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1113-1132, September.
    5. Xavier Sala-i-Martin & Maxim Pinkovskiy, 2010. "African Poverty is Falling...Much Faster than You Think!," NBER Working Papers 15775, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Valentine, Theodore R., 1993. "Drought, transfer entitlements, and income distribution: The Botswana experience," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 109-126, January.
    7. Ellen Hillbom, 2010. "Agricultural development and the distribution of water resources in Kgatleng District, Botswana," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 413-427.
    8. Lewis, W Arthur, 1979. "The Dual Economy Revisited," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 47(3), pages 211-229, September.
    9. Adelman, Irma & Morris, Cynthia Taft, 1997. "Editorial: Development history and its implications for development theory," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 831-840, June.
    10. Kuznets, Simon, 1973. "Modern Economic Growth: Findings and Reflections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(3), pages 247-258, June.
    11. World Bank, 2014. "World Development Indicators 2014," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 18237.
    12. 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.
    13. Oded Stark, 1991. "The Migration of Labor," Blackwell Books, Wiley Blackwell, number 1557860300, April.
    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. Ellen Hillbom & Jutta Bolt, 2015. "Changing income inequality and structural transformation: The case of Botswana 1921-2010," WIDER Working Paper Series 028, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Mohamed Amara & Hatem Jemmali, 2018. "Deciphering the Relationship Between Internal Migration and Regional Disparities in Tunisia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 313-331, January.
    3. Fidrmuc, Jan, 2001. "Migration and adjustment to shocks in transition economies," ZEI Working Papers B 23-2001, University of Bonn, ZEI - Center for European Integration Studies.
    4. Guy Stecklov & Calogero Carletto & Carlo Azzarri & Benjamin Davis, 2010. "Gender and migration from Albania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(4), pages 935-961, November.
    5. Seksiri Niwattisaiwong & Komsan Suriya, 2018. "Margin of luck and value of information in lottery purchases in Thailand," RAIS Journal for Social Sciences, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 2(2), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Nancy McCarthy & Gero Carletto & Benjamin Davis & Irini Maltsoglou, 2006. "Assessing the Impact of Massive Out-Migration on Agriculture," Working Papers 06-14, Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA).
    7. Danilo Bertoni & Daniele Cavicchioli & Franco Donzelli & Giovanni Ferrazzi & Dario G. Frisio & Roberto Pretolani & Elena Claire Ricci & Vera Ventura, 2018. "Recent Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research in the Field of Sustainable Development," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Konseiga, Adama, 2006. "Household Migration Decisions as Survival Strategy: The Case of Burkina Faso," Discussion Papers 276269, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    9. Li Hao, 2022. "Impact of Relaxing the Hukou Constraints on Return Migration Intentions: Evidence from China," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(2), pages 583-607, April.
    10. Mario Sanchez, 2003. "Internal Migration, Return Migration, and Mortality. Evidence from Panel Data on Union Army Veterans," NBER Chapters, in: Health and Labor Force Participation over the Life Cycle: Evidence from the Past, pages 203-230, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Theodore Gerber & Karine Torosyan, 2013. "Remittances in the Republic of Georgia: Correlates, Economic Impact, and Social Capital Formation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(4), pages 1279-1301, August.
    12. Jonathan Temple, 2002. "The Costs of Dualism," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 02/532, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    13. Yang Cheng & Yuxia Lv & Mark Rosenberg & Linke Hou, 2018. "Decision Making of Non-Agricultural Work by Rural Residents in Weifang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    14. Adama Zerbo, 2006. "Marché du travail urbain et pauvreté en Afrique subsaharienne : un modèle d’analyse," Documents de travail 129, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    15. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Tobias Ketterer, 2015. "Do we follow the money? The drivers of migration across regions in the EU," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 2, pages 27-45.
    16. Lall, Somik V. & Selod, Harris & Shalizi, Zmarak, 2006. "Rural-urban migration in developing countries : a survey of theoretical predictions and empirical findings," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3915, The World Bank.
    17. Akasaka, Shintaro, 2016. "Macro determinants of Migration: Review and Analysis," MPRA Paper 106509, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    18. Md Mostafizur RAHMANPhD & Mahmud Uz ZAMAN & Ali HAIDER, 2018. "Opportunistic Migration: A Collateral Promise for Development in Seasonal Migration of Southwest Coastal Bangladesh," RAIS Journal for Social Sciences, Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Susmita Dasgupta & Md. Moqbul Hossain & Mainul Huq & David Wheeler, 2016. "Facing The Hungry Tide: Climate Change, Livelihood Threats, And Household Responses In Coastal Bangladesh," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(03), pages 1-25, August.
    20. Ana Isabel López García & Pedro P. Orraca-Romano, 2019. "International migration and universal healthcare access: evidence from Mexico’s ‘Seguro Popular’," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 171-187, April.

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2015-028. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.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.