IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2025-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Kuznets at 70: the enduring significance of a curve and a hypothesis

Author

Listed:
  • James K. Galbraith
  • Ravi Kanbur
  • Kunal Sen
  • Andy Sumner

Abstract

Seven decades ago, Simon Kuznets put forward the hypothesis that as economies developed, national inequality would first increase and then decrease—an inverted U-shape. He provided preliminary evidence for the hypothesis on the basis of the limited data available at the time, and theorized the genesis of the curve as arising from the twin forces of structural transformation of the economy and political economy pressures.

Suggested Citation

  • James K. Galbraith & Ravi Kanbur & Kunal Sen & Andy Sumner, 2025. "Kuznets at 70: the enduring significance of a curve and a hypothesis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2025-46, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-46
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2025-46-kuznets-70-enduring-significance-curve-and-hypothesis.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Bourguignon, 2015. "The Globalization of Inequality," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10433.
    2. Kanbur, Ravi, 2017. "Structural Transformation and Income Distribution: Kuznets and Beyond," IZA Discussion Papers 10636, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. İşcan, Talan B. & Lim, Kyoung Mook, 2022. "Structural transformation and inequality: The case of South Korea," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    4. Ravi Kanbur, 2017. "Working Paper 266 - Structural Transformation and Income Distribution: Kuznets and Beyond," Working Paper Series 2377, African Development Bank.
    5. Evgeniya Kolomak, 2020. "Urbanization and income inequality: Cause or solution?," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 59, pages 55-70.
    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. Zhou, Yixiao & Tyers, Rod, 2019. "Automation and inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    2. Benedicte Dalmeida Ngah Atangana & Henri Ngoa Tabi, 2024. "Technical Education, Vocational Training and Industrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA)," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(1), pages 1-65, July.
    3. Diego Martínez-Navarro & Ignacio Amate-Fortes & Almudena Guarnido-Rueda, 2020. "Inequality and development: is the Kuznets curve in effect today?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(3), pages 703-735, October.
    4. Cinar Baymul & Kunal Sen, 2020. "Was Kuznets Right? New Evidence on the Relationship between Structural Transformation and Inequality," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1643-1662, July.
    5. Devasmita Jena, 2021. "International Trade, Structural Transformation and Economic Catch-Up: An Analysis of The Asean Experiences," Journal of Economic Development, The Economic Research Institute, Chung-Ang University, vol. 46(3), pages 135-155.
    6. Kevin S. Nell & A.P. Thirlwall, 2017. "Why does the productivity of investment vary across countries?," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 70(282), pages 213-245.
    7. Maurice Obstfeld, 2021. "Globalization and nationalism: Retrospect and prospect," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 675-690, October.
    8. Bisin, Alberto & Verdier, Thierry, 2017. "Inequality, redistribution and cultural integration in the Welfare State," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 122-140.
    9. Saha, Anjan K. & Mishra, Vinod, 2020. "Genetic distance, economic growth and top income shares: Evidence from OECD countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 37-47.
    10. Aaberge, Rolf & Atkinson, Anthony B. & Modalsli, Jørgen, 2020. "Estimating long-run income inequality from mixed tabular data: Empirical evidence from Norway, 1875–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    11. Rory Horner & David Hulme, 2019. "From International to Global Development: New Geographies of 21st Century Development," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(2), pages 347-378, March.
    12. Bauer, Johannes M., 2018. "The Internet and income inequality: Socio-economic challenges in a hyperconnected society," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 333-343.
    13. Burchardt, Tania & Hick, Rod, 2017. "Inequality, advantage and the capability approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84598, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Guillermo Cruces & Gary S. Fields & David Jaume & Mariana Viollaz, 2015. "The growth-employment-poverty nexus in Latin America in the 2000s: Cross-country analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-110, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Yonatan Berman, 2022. "The Long-Run Evolution of Absolute Intergenerational Mobility," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 61-83, July.
    16. Clementi,Fabio & Fabiani,Michele & Molini,Vasco & Schettino,Francesco, 2022. "Is Inequality Systematically Underestimated in Sub-Saharan Africa ? A Proposal toOvercome the Problem," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10058, The World Bank.
    17. Rory Horner, 2017. "What is global development," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 202017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    18. Valentina VASILE & Daniel ŞTEFAN & Călin-Adrian COMES & Elena BUNDUCHI & Anamari-Beatrice ŞTEFAN, 2020. "FDI or Remittances for Sustainable External Financial Inflows. Theoretical Delimitations and Practical Evidence using Granger Causality," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(4), pages 131-153, December.
    19. Ranaldi, Marco, 2021. "Global Distributions of Capital and Labor Incomes: Capitalization of the Global Middle Class," SocArXiv 3g59r, Center for Open Science.
    20. Kym Anderson, 2021. "Food policy in a more volatile climate and trade environment," Departmental Working Papers 2021-25, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-46. 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.