Inequality in Historical Perspective

Abstract

The magnitude of the increases in global inequality over the last two centuries are astounding, measured by both the absolute and the relative gaps between the richest and the poorest countries, and between the richest and the poorest groups of people.1 Notwithstanding improvements in some indicators of global inequality in the last two decades due to the impressive expansion of China and India, the main indicators of global income inequality in recent years are all very high — and much higher than they appeared one or two hundred years ago. The trends can be seen in the estimates of the rise in Gini coefficients between 1820 and the 1990s, and of the increases in the gaps in per capita income between the highest 5 per cent and lowest 20 per cent of world population, shown in Tables 4.1 and 4.2.