Abstract
Economic inequality is a key research area, and the direction of the relationship between industrialization, economic growth, and economic inequality over time is a key question. An examination of wealth inequality in the north Atlantic Anglosphere countries of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States from 1668 to 2013 finds that the process of economic growth and industrialization has pushed wealth inequality upwards while other economic factors have either reinforced inequality or pulled it down. While wealth inequality is generally high, it declined over the long term and, unlike income inequality, has not experienced as pronounced a rebound in these or other developed countries since the mid-twentieth century—with the notable exception of the United States.
Acknowledgements: The author wishes to thank Daniel Waldenström and Jeffrey Williamson for their comments on earlier versions of this project. As well, portions of this project were delivered at conferences and seminars and received helpful comments. These venues included the Social Sciences History Meetings, Chicago, November 17–20, 2016, the Seminar Series, University of Economics (VSE), Prague, October 12, 2016 and the Meetings of the Canadian Economic Association, Ottawa, June 2–5, 2016.
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Notes
- 1.
The Global Wealth Report 2017 done by Credit Suisse analyzed the wealth held by 4.8 billion adults around the world. See: https://www.credit-suisse.com/corporate/en/research/research-institute/global-wealth-report.html
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- 3.
- 4.
Daly (2016) presents a link between inequality and homicides by arguing that economic inequality is the cause of social problems that elicit greater violence, particularly among males. Subramanian and Kawachi (2004) and Lynch et al. (2001) draw the link between income inequality and higher mortality rates.
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See Milanovic et al. (2010).
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See Waldenström (2017).
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The Anglosphere is rooted in the British Empire and generally refers to the network and close association of English-speaking common-law-based countries. It can be defined as narrowly as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada , Australia, and New Zealand but more broadly can also include many current and former members of the British Empire and Commonwealth. For a discussion, see Bennett (2007), Willetts (2007), and Kenny and Pearce (2015).
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Firestone (1960; Table 3).
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Data source: Statistics Canada, Table 2280001, Series v191490, v191559 and v191560.
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See Vanek (1963), who notes that raw materials and crude foods still accounted for 25 percent of US exports in 1945. Moreover, Gavin Wright (1990) argues that the resource intensity of American manufacturing exports was increasing between 1880 and 1920. For overviews of American economic development, see Atack and Passell (1994) and Engerman and Gallman (1996, 2000a, b).
- 14.
Natural resources have been an important driver of general Canadian economic prosperity. For a classic account, see Innis (1930). For Canada , Keay (2007) finds that the exploitation of Canada’s natural resources during the twentieth century made direct and indirect contributions to the size and efficiency of the Canadian economy and had a substantial positive impact on the level of real per capita GDP, contributing about 20 percent. Another comprehensive study by Baldwin and MacDonald (2012) also finds natural resources and trade to be important contributors to Canadian real gross national income between 1870 and 2010.
- 15.
Pik etty (2014: 158).
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Di Matteo, L. (2018). An Unequal World: Introduction to Wealth Inequality in the North Atlantic Anglosphere. In: The Evolution and Determinants of Wealth Inequality in the North Atlantic Anglo-Sphere, 1668–2013. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89773-8_1
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