LONG SWINGS IN AMERICAN INEQUALITY: THE KUZNETS CONJECTURE REVISITED

Brian J. L. Berry, Edward J. Harpham and Euel Elliott

Papers in Regional Science, 1995, vol. 74, issue 2, 153-174

Abstract: ABSTRACT In the two hundred year history of American macroeconomic development there have been four great surges in inequality. Each followed a stagflation crisis and was accompanied by a turn of the electorate to more conservative commercially‐oriented candidates for the presidency and congress. Each stage was followed, in turn, by an egalitarian backlash in which a political agenda dominated by technological innovation, efficiency and growth was replaced by one concerned with social innovation, equity and redistribution. These interlocking macroeconomic and political rhythms point to a long wave reinterpretation of the Kuznets conjecture on the relations of the inequality and economic growth within the contact of a containing dialectic between capitalism and democracy in America.

Date: 1995
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1435-5597.1995.tb00634.x

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:presci:v:74:y:1995:i:2:p:153-174

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