A Kuznets rise and a Piketty fall: income inequality in Finland, 1865–1934

Petri Roikonen and Sakari Heikkinen

European Review of Economic History, 2020, vol. 24, issue 1, 46-79

Abstract: This study presents the new Gini coefficient and top income share series for Finland in the years 1865–1934 by utilizing Finnish tax statistics, which provide data on a poor country on the threshold of modern economic growth. Income inequality was relatively moderate in 1865, while famine (1867–1868) decreased it further. Income inequality increased substantially during the late nineteenth century, then declined during WWI and its aftermath, followed by another increase in inequality in the late 1920s that was halted by the Great Depression. The rising level of inequality before WWI fits well with the ideas of the Kuznets curve and maximum inequality, whereas the decline in inequality was due to shocks (e.g., civil war).

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ereh/hey032 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
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:oup:ereveh:v:24:y:2020:i:1:p:46-79.

Access Statistics for this article

European Review of Economic History is currently edited by Christopher M. Meissner, Steven Nafziger and Alessandro Nuvolari

More articles in European Review of Economic History from European Historical Economics Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().