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...

According to the Kuznets hypothesis, inequality first tends to increase and then decrease as a country develops. Whether borne out empirically, this inverted-U Kuznets curve, as a stylized 'fact', has shaped the discourse on economic development and income inequality for decades. In this paper...

This article examines the relationship between financial development and income inequality for selected EU countries by using fixed effects panel data estimator over the years 2004-2015. Our empirical results show that financial development ultimately causes an increase in income inequality...

This paper explores the question of structural transformation and income distribution through the eyes of the pioneer in such analysis, Simon Kuznets. It argues that his 1955 paper stands the test of time in providing insights which are relevant to understanding current phenomena like the...

We revisit the iconic Kuznets (1955) paper, which postulated a clear positive relationship between inequality and economic development in the early stages of structural transformation. Using a newly released global dataset on income inequality-the WIID Companion-we set out the stylized facts of...

The 20th century beheld a dramatic transformation of the family. Some Kuznets style facts regarding structural change in the family are presented. Over the course of the 20th century in the United States fertility declined, educational attainment waxed, housework fell, leisure increased, jobs...

This paper provides new estimates of the evolution of pay inequality in China, overall and by region and sector, from 1987 to 2012, using the between-groups component of Theil's T-statistic measured across regions and sectors. We find that China's overall pay inequality started to rise rapidly...

The distribution of health inequalities appears to exhibit a different pattern when samples of developing countries are examined. One explanation is the existence of a health Kuznets ́curve. This paper sets out as an exploratory analysis to test the latter hypothesis of an inverse U shape...