American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992
American Economic Review
vol. 92,
no. 4, September 2002
(pp. 727–744)
Abstract
This paper investigates the distribution of well being among world citizens during the last two centuries. The estimates show that inequality of world distribution of income worsened from the beginning of the 19th century to World War II and after that seems to have stabilized or to have grown more slowly. In the early 19th century most inequality was due to differences within countries; later, it was due to differences between countries. Inequality in longevity, also increased during the 19th century, but then was reversed in the second half of the 20th century, perhaps mitigating the failure of income inequality to improve in the last decades. (JEL D31, F0, N0, O0)Citation
Bourguignon, François, and Christian Morrisson. 2002. "Inequality Among World Citizens: 1820-1992 ." American Economic Review 92 (4): 727–744. DOI: 10.1257/00028280260344443JEL Classification
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
- O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration