On the Evolution of the World Income Distribution

Charles Jones

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1997, vol. 11, issue 3, 19-36

Abstract: The post-World War I period has seen substantial changes in the world income distribution. As a result, the shape of the distribution has changed from something that looks like a normal distribution in 1960 to a bimodal 'twin peaks' distribution in 1988. Projecting these changes into the future suggests a number of interesting findings. First, it seems likely that the United States will lose its position as the country with the highest level of GDP per worker. Second, the future income distribution will involve far more 'rich' countries and far fewer 'poor' countries than currently observed.

JEL-codes: D31 D72 E17 N10 N30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.11.3.19
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (242)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.11.3.19 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: On the Evolution of the World Income Distribution
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jecper:v:11:y:1997:i:3:p:19-36

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Enrico Moretti

More articles in Journal of Economic Perspectives from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().