Global headwinds to Kuznets' low-inequality transformation?: Plutocrats, populism, and more

Nancy Birdsall

No wp-2025-41, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: Kuznets predicts an economy's return to low inequality once structural transformation has peaked. I explore some headwinds to falling inequality in developing countries given their thorough engagement in the globalized market Kuznets could not have foreseen. Headwinds include plutocrats' abuse of open capital markets to elude taxation, populism in rich countries that prevents migration of labour from less to more productive economies, and climate damage.

Keywords: Inequality; Globalization; Populism; Structural transformation; Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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