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Lifting All Boats? The Evolution of Income and Wealth Inequality over the Path of Development

Waldenström, Daniel LU (2009) In Lund Studies in Economic History 51.
Abstract
Does a rising tide lift all boats? This question – that is, to what extent does improvements of the general economy benefit all – is central to the study of economics and history. From fundamental issues about whether market forces have an innate tendency to increase or decrease differences in economic outcomes, to much debated questions about the effects of government policies, distributional concerns are always present.



In this dissertation, a novel dataset of international long-term income wealth inequality data is presented and used to shed new light on long-standing issues in economic history. What were the distributional impacts of the industrial revolution? Who gains and who loses the most from the outbreak of a... (More)
Does a rising tide lift all boats? This question – that is, to what extent does improvements of the general economy benefit all – is central to the study of economics and history. From fundamental issues about whether market forces have an innate tendency to increase or decrease differences in economic outcomes, to much debated questions about the effects of government policies, distributional concerns are always present.



In this dissertation, a novel dataset of international long-term income wealth inequality data is presented and used to shed new light on long-standing issues in economic history. What were the distributional impacts of the industrial revolution? Who gains and who loses the most from the outbreak of a financial crisis? Has progressive taxation been a successful way to redistribute resources from the rich to the rest of the population?



Several important findings come out of the analyses presented. A general result is that whereas nineteenth century industrialization had a mixed impact on inequality across the Western world the twentieth century experience, including a rapid growth of government, educational reforms and the introduction of progressive taxation, uniformly equalized societies. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Professor Prados de la Escosura, Leandro, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Income distribution, Top incomes, Wealth inequality, Intergenerational mobility, Income taxation, Economic history
in
Lund Studies in Economic History
volume
51
pages
265 pages
defense location
Holger Crafoords Ekonomicentrum, sal EC3:211
defense date
2009-11-05 16:15:00
ISSN
1400-4860
ISBN
978-91-628-7924-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
76f9a183-312d-42b9-9b98-9a156fc5e8b1 (old id 1487895)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:07:10
date last changed
2019-05-21 18:47:14
@phdthesis{76f9a183-312d-42b9-9b98-9a156fc5e8b1,
  abstract     = {{Does a rising tide lift all boats? This question – that is, to what extent does improvements of the general economy benefit all – is central to the study of economics and history. From fundamental issues about whether market forces have an innate tendency to increase or decrease differences in economic outcomes, to much debated questions about the effects of government policies, distributional concerns are always present. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
In this dissertation, a novel dataset of international long-term income wealth inequality data is presented and used to shed new light on long-standing issues in economic history. What were the distributional impacts of the industrial revolution? Who gains and who loses the most from the outbreak of a financial crisis? Has progressive taxation been a successful way to redistribute resources from the rich to the rest of the population?<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Several important findings come out of the analyses presented. A general result is that whereas nineteenth century industrialization had a mixed impact on inequality across the Western world the twentieth century experience, including a rapid growth of government, educational reforms and the introduction of progressive taxation, uniformly equalized societies.}},
  author       = {{Waldenström, Daniel}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-628-7924-2}},
  issn         = {{1400-4860}},
  keywords     = {{Income distribution; Top incomes; Wealth inequality; Intergenerational mobility; Income taxation; Economic history}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Lund Studies in Economic History}},
  title        = {{Lifting All Boats? The Evolution of Income and Wealth Inequality over the Path of Development}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5236581/1487974.pdf}},
  volume       = {{51}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}