Top Incomes in Colonial Seychelles

Anthony Atkinson

World Inequality Lab Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: In 2013, the Seychelles were recorded as having the highest Gini coefficient (66 per cent) for income inequality of any country in the world (World Development Indicators, 2014). The republic had then been independent for thirty seven years. Before independence, however, it had been under colonial rule for some two hundred years.It is therefore interesting to go back to its colonial past to see how unequal was the distribution of income under British governance. Shortly before independence, the Government of the Seychelles reported that "information on the distribution of personal incomes in Seychelles is incomplete, and in particular there is little information about the incomes of the rich" (Government of Seychelles, 1975, page 35). There was however one source that could have been exploited: the income tax returns published by the colonial authorities. It is this source that is used in the present paper.

Keywords: income; inequality; distribution; top incomes; colonization; seychelles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02654918
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