The Kuznets curve of human capital inequality: 1870–2010

Christian Morrisson (1) , Fabrice Murtin (2)

1 FERDI - Fondation pour les Etudes et Recherches sur le Développement International
2 Economics department

This paper describes the long-term global trends in education inequality since 1870. Inequality in years of schooling is shown to have mechanically decreased along with the decline in the share of illiterate people. In search of a monetary equivalent of years of schooling, we turn to Mincer (1974) human capital ineq uality. Within countries, we find evidence of an inverted U-shape curve for human capital inequality over time, namely a Kuznets curve for human capital. At the global level, the world inequality in human capital has followed a similar trajectory, first increasing from 1870 to 1970, then decreasing.

Keywords: Inequality; Human Capital; Education; Kuznets Curve

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Economics and Finance

Christian Morrisson, Fabrice Murtin. The Kuznets curve of human capital inequality: 1870–2010. Journal of Economic Inequality, 2013, 11 (3), pp.283 - 301. ⟨10.1007/s10888-012-9227-2⟩. ⟨hal-03473868⟩