Inequality in the long run
Open accessAbstract
This Review presents basic facts regarding the long-run evolution of income and wealth inequality in Europe and the United States. Income and wealth inequality was very high a century ago, particularly in Europe, but dropped dramatically in the first half of the 20th century. Income inequality has surged back in the United States since the 1970s so that the United States is much more unequal than Europe today. We discuss possible interpretations and lessons for the future.
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The United States is more economically unequal than virtually every other industrialized country.
“the United States is more economically unequal than virtually every other industrialized country (Piketty & Saez, 2014).”
From The psychology of social class: How socioeconomic status impacts thought, feelings, and behaviour (2018) · cites this paper as Piketty & Saez, 2014
Cites
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Diffenbaugh, N. S., & Burke, M. (2019) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1816020116 · Cited by 927 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Piketty, T., & Saez, E.
- Affiliations
- Paris School of Economics (FR)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
- Corresponding author
- Piketty, Thomas
- ORCID
- Piketty, Thomas
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2014-05-23
- Volume
- 344
- Issue
- 6186
- Pages
- 838-843
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2016561445
- Cited by
- 960
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 55 · 2025: 88 · 2024: 88 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 84 · 2021: 101 · 2020: 83 · 2019: 111 · 2018: 60 · 2017: 70 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 24
- FWCI
- 22.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- shs.hal.science
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Income, Poverty, and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Historical Economic and Social Studies
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › General Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economic Theory and Policy
- Keywords
- income inequality, wealth inequality, long-term trends, historical inequality, Europe, United States, 20th century
- MeSH terms
- Europe, Humans, Income, Socioeconomic Factors, United States, History, 15th Century, History, 16th Century, History, 17th Century, History, 18th Century, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century, History, Ancient, Economic Development
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