Revisiting the Kuznets curve, 70 years on

Stella Keijzer and Kunal Sen

No wp-2025-79, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: 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 Kuznets curve for a range of developing and developed countries. We examine the relationship between the net income Gini and per capita income, as well as the relationship between the net income Gini and structural transformation.

Keywords: Kuznets; Inequality; Economic development; Structural transformation; Manufacturing; Services (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-inv
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