Measuring Ancient Inequality

Milanović, Branko; Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G.

doi:10.3386/w13550

Cited by 69 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…These results are clearly at odds with conventional wisdom on this issue and in particular with neo-instituionalist assumptions. That this measure of inequality turns out to be higher in Asia as well is also in contradiction with Milanovic et al (2008).…”

Section: Wages Heights and Gdp Per Capitamentioning

confidence: 46%

“…To the best of our knowledge, this is first time that these two variables, closely interconnected and related to economic inequality, have been jointly analysed for the case of colonial Hispanic American. Milanovic et al (2008) have shown some fragmentary evidence about18 th and 19 th centuries Iberian America as a particular case within their pioneering study on ancient inequality. Based mostly on social tables and tax census data, this original work presents Gini coefficients for twenty-seven pre-industrial societies ranging from early 1 st century Rome to British India in 1947 and includes New Spain by late 18 th century.…”

Section: Colonial Origins Of Inequality In Hispanic America?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some Reflections Based on New Empirical Evidence

González

Montero²

2010

RHE / JILAEH

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This paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing debate on the historical roots of the high economic inequality of contemporary Iberian America. Our approach, which is basically empirical, departs from the mainstream scholarship. We show new data on wages and heights in several viceroyalties that (1) suggest relatively medium-to-high levels of material welfare among the commoners in Bourbon Hispanic America; and (2) allow us to build indexes of economic inequality. An international comparison of those indexes casts some doubts on the widely accepted view that Viceroyal America's economy was exclusively based on extremely unequal or extractive Keywords: anthropometrics, colonialism, inequality, wages, Hispanic American economic history RESUMENEste trabajo pretende contribuir al debate sobre las causas histó ricas de la alta desigualdad econó mica en la Iberoamérica contemporá nea y lo hace en forma bá sicamente empírica, lo que es bastante inusual. En él se muestran nuevos datos sobre salarios y estaturas de varios virreinatos que: (1) sugieren niveles de bienestar material relativamente medios o altos para grupos no privilegiados de la Hispanoamérica borbó nica; y (2) permiten la construcció n de índices de desigualdad econó mica. La comparació n internacional de esos índices arroja dudas sobre la verosimilitud del ampliamente extendido supuesto de que la economía de la América españ ola se basada exclusivamente en instituciones extremadamente desiguales o extractivas, que ha sido popularizada por los influyentes trabajos de Engerman y Sokoloff y Acemoglu et al.

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Section: Wages Heights and Gdp Per Capitamentioning

confidence: 46%

Section: Colonial Origins Of Inequality In Hispanic America?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some Reflections Based on New Empirical Evidence

González

Montero²

2010

RHE / JILAEH

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“…Similarly to the cases of social indicators, I have assumed a lower bound for per capita GDP that has been set at G-K 1990$300, which represents a basic level of physiological subsistence (Sagar and Najam, 1998;Milanovic et al, 2011), below both the World Bank's extreme poverty threshold of G-K 1990$1 a day per person and Maddison's (2006) G-K 1990$400 per capita. GDP per capita (G-K 1990$) data come from Maddison (2006Maddison ( , 2010 and Prados de la Escosura (2012) supplemented with historical national accounts.…”

Section: Sources and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

World Human Development: 1870–2007

Escosura

2014

Review of Income and Wealth

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How has wellbeing evolved over time and across regions? How does the West compare to the Rest? What explains their differences? These questions are addressed using a historical index of human development. A sustained improvement in world wellbeing has taken place since 1870. The absolute gap between OECD and the Rest widened over time, but an incomplete catching up—largely explained by education—occurred between 1913 and 1970. As the health transition was achieved in the Rest, the contribution of life expectancy to human development improvement declined and the Rest fell behind in terms of longevity. Meanwhile, in the OECD, as longevity increased, healthy years expanded. A large variance in human development is noticeable in the Rest since 1970, with East Asia, Latin America, and North Africa catching up to the OECD, and Central and Eastern Europe and Sub‐Saharan Africa falling behind.

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“…As an alternative, Milanovic proposes another model of 'positive and negative obligations', where he distinguishes between positive obligations of the State to ensure and secure human rights and negative obligations to respect human rights. 233 Positive obligations would apply within the limits of a State's jurisdiction, while negative obligations would be limitless. Again, this is only a proposal on how human rights obligations could be interpreted, which has not been accepted by States or courts.…”

Section: The Applicability Of Human Rights Law To Cyber Operationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cyber Operations and International Law

Delerue

2020

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Measuring Ancient Inequality

Cited by 69 publications

References 4 publications

Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some Reflections Based on New Empirical Evidence

Colonial Origins of Inequality in Hispanic America? Some Reflections Based on New Empirical Evidence

World Human Development: 1870–2007

Cyber Operations and International Law

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