Economic inequality in Latin America and Africa, 1650 to 1950: can a comparison of historical trajectories help to understand underdevelopment?

Stefania Galli, Dimitrios Theodoridis and Klas Rönnbäck

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The present article provides a comparative review of historical economic inequality in the two most unequal regions of the world, namely Latin America and Africa. This contribution examines novel studies that provide quantitative estimates of income and/or wealth inequality in the two continents in terms of sources, methods, results and interpretations, focusing on the period 1650 to 1950. The article shows that although scholars in the two regions have often employed similar methodologies, their results are far from conforming to a uniform pattern. The present review highlights how scholars of Latin America and Africa tend to remain geographically isolated, failing to capture the learning opportunities stemming from the work of their continental counterparts in terms of both sources and methods.

Keywords: Africa; history; inequality; Latin America; resource distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N36 N37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2023-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Published in Economic History of Developing Regions, 1, January, 2023, 38(1), pp. 41 - 64. ISSN: 2078-0389

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/113838/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Economic inequality in Latin America and Africa, 1650 to 1950: Can a comparison of historical trajectories help to understand underdevelopment? (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:113838

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