Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:51:55.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inequality, poverty and the Kuznets curve in Spain, 1850–2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2008

LEANDRO PRADOS DE LA ESCOSURA
LEANDRO PRADOS DE LA ESCOSURA*
Affiliation:
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Departamento de Historia Económica e Institucionesand Instituto Figuerola, Calle Madrid 126, 28903 Getafe (Madrid), Spain, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Economic rather than political forces appear to dominate inequality trends in Spain. Inequality evolution fits a Kuznets curve. Wars increased inequality but had non-permanent effects, while progressive taxation had no impact until 1980, at odds with Atkinson, Piketty, Saez and associates' findings. A substantial fall in absolute poverty resulted from growth but also from inequality reduction in the interwar period and the late 1950s. Rising inequality and extreme poverty are not found at the roots of the Spanish Civil War. Between the mid 1950s and 1974, inequality contraction and absolute poverty eradication represented a major departure from Latin America's performance while matching the OECD's.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , December 2008 , pp. 287 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © European Historical Economics Society 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcaide Inchausti, J. (1999). Distribución sectorial, factorial y personal de la renta. In Delgado, J. L. García (ed.), España, Economía: ante el siglo XXI. Madrid: Espasa, pp. 457–81.Google Scholar
Allen, R. C. (2005). A pessimist's model of growth and inequality during the British Industrial Revolution. Nuffield College, University of Oxford (mimeo).Google Scholar
Alvaredo, F. and Saez, E. (2007). Income and wealth concentration in Spain in a historical and fiscal perspective. Paris School of Economics Paper 2007–39.Google Scholar
Anuario Estadistico de Barcelona (1905). Barcelona: Ayuntamiento de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Anuario Estadistico de España (several issues).Google Scholar
Atkinson, A. B. and Brandolini, A. (2001). Promise and pitfalls in the use of ‘secondary’ data-sets: income inequality in OECD countries as a case study. Journal of Economic Literature 39, 3, pp. 771–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, A. B. and Piketty, T. (2007). Top Incomes over the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baiges, J., Molinas, C. and Sebastian, M. (1987). La economía española 1964–1985. Datos, fuentes y análisis. Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Fiscales.Google Scholar
Bandrés, E. (1999). Gasto público y estructura del bienestar: el sistema de protección social. In Delgado, J. L. García (ed.), España, Economía: ante el siglo XXI. Madrid: Espasa, pp. 631–60.Google Scholar
Barciela, C. (2002). Guerra Civil y primer franquismo. In Comín, F., Llopis, E. and Hernández, M. (eds.), Historia Económica de España. Siglos X–XX. Barcelona: Crítica, pp. 331–67.Google Scholar
Betrán, C. and Pons, M. A. (2004). Skilled and unskilled wage differentials and economic integration, 1870–1930. European Review of Economic History 8, 1, pp. 29–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, C. (2004). Spain: development, democracy and equity. IBRD World Development Report 2006 Background Paper.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, F. (2002). The growth elasticity of poverty reduction: explaining heterogeneity across countries and time periods. Delta Working Papers 2002–3.Google Scholar
Bourguignon, F. and Morrisson, C. (2002), Inequality among world citizens: 1820–1992. American Economic Review 92, 4, pp. 727–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, Y. S., Kaelble, H. and Thomas, M. (eds.) (1991). Income Distribution in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bringas Gutiérrez, M. A. (2000). La productividad de los factores en la agricultura española (1752–1935). Madrid: Banco de España.Google Scholar
Caballero, F. (1864). Memoria sobre el fomento de la población rural. Madrid: Imp. del Colegio de Sordo-mudos y de Ciegos.Google Scholar
Cabrera, M., and del Rey Reguillo, F. (2002). El poder de los empresarios. Política y economía en la España contemporánea (1875–2000). Madrid: Taurus.Google Scholar
Calvo-González, O. (2007). American military interests and economic confidence in Spain under the Franco dictatorship. Journal of Economic History 67, pp. 740–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camps, E. (1995). La formación del mercado de trabajo industrial en la Cataluña del siglo XIX. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social.Google Scholar
Cerdá, I. (1867). Teoría general de la urbanización y aplicación de sus principios y doctrinas a la reforma y ensanche de Barcelona. Barcelona.Google Scholar
Chastagnaret, G. (2000). L'Espagne, puissance minière dans l'Europe du XIXe siècle. Madrid: Casa de Velásquez.Google Scholar
Clark, C. (1957). The Conditions of Economic Progress. 3rd edn. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Comín, F. (1996). Historia de la Hacienda pública, II España (1808–1995). Barcelona: Crítica.Google Scholar
Comín, F. (2002). El periodo de entreguerras (1919–1935). In Comín, F., Llopis, E. and Hernández, M. (eds.), Historia económica de España. Siglos X–XX, Barcelona: Crítica, pp. 285–329.Google Scholar
Comín, F. (2006). Reaching a political consensus for tax reform in Spain: the Moncloa pacts, joining the European Union and the best of the journey. Georgia State University, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, International Studies Program Working Paper 06-01.Google Scholar
Comín, F. (2007). The Spanish savings banks and the competitive cooperation model (1928–2002). Revista de Historia Económica/ Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 25, 2, pp. 199–229.Google Scholar
Crafts, N. (2000). Globalization and growth in the twentieth century. International Monetary Fund Working Paper 00/44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuadrado Roura, J. R. (1999). Convergencia versus divergencia de las disparidades interregionales en España. In Herrero, J. M. Maravall (ed.), Dimensiones de la desigualdad. Madrid: Fundación Argentaria/Visor, pp. 209–49.Google Scholar
Deininger, K. and Squire, L. (1996, updated). A new data set measuring income inequality. World Bank Economic Review 10, pp. 565–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deininger, K. and Squire, L. (1998). New ways of looking at old issues: inequality and growth. Journal of Development Economics 57, pp. 257–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doménech, J. (2007). Working hours in the European Periphery. The length of the working day in Spain, 1880–1920. Explorations in Economic History 44, pp. 469–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez, R. (2002). La riqueza de las regiones. Madrid: Alianza.Google Scholar
Dumke, R. (1988). Income inequality and industrialization in Germany, 1850–1913: images, trends and causes of historical inequality. Research in Economic History 11, pp. 1–47.Google Scholar
Dumke, R. (1991). Income inequality and industrialization in Germany, 1850–1913: the Kuznets hypothesis re-visited. In Brenner, Y. S., Kaelble, H. and Thomas, M. (eds.), Income Distribution in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–48.Google Scholar
Encuesta de Estructura Salarial, Madrid: INE, several issues.Google Scholar
Encuesta de Salarios y de Coste Laboral, Madrid: INE, several issues.Google Scholar
Escudero, A. (1998). Minería e industrialización de Vizcaya. Barcelona: Crítica.Google Scholar
Esteban, J. and Ray, D. (1994). On the measurement of polarization. Econometrica 62, 819–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flora, P. (1983). State, Economy and Society in Western Europe, 1815–1975. Frankfurt: Campus. 2 vols.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Francois, J. F. and Rojas-Romagosa, H. (2005). The construction and interpretation of combined cross-section and time-series inequality datasets. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuente, A. de la (2002). On the sources of convergence: a close look at Spanish regions. European Economic Review 46, 569–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fundación BBV (1999). Renta nacional de España y su distribución provincial: serie homogénea años 1955 a 1993 y avances 1994 a 1998. Bilbao: Fundación BBV.Google Scholar
Gimeno Ullastres, J. A. (1999). La incidencia redistributiva de las prestaciones públicas en especie: sanidad y educación. In Herrero, J. M. Maravall (ed.), Dimensiones de la desigualdad. Madrid: Fundación Argentaria/Visor, pp. 15–67.Google Scholar
Goerlich, F. J. and Mas, M. (2001). Inequality in Spain 1973–91: contribution to a regional database. Review of Income and Wealth 47, 361–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goerlich, F. J. and Mas, M. (2004). Distribución personal de la renta en España. 1973–2001. Papeles de Economía Española 100, 50–8.Google Scholar
Gottschalk, P. and Smeeding, T. M. (2000). Empirical evidence on income inequality in industrialized countries. In Atkinson, A. B. and Bourguignon, F. (eds.), Handbook of Income Distribution. Amsterdam: Elsevier, I, pp. 261–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffmann, W. G., Grumbach, F. and Hesse, H. (1965). Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrunderts. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Huberman, M. (2005). Working hours of the world unite? New international evidence of worktime, 1870–1913. Journal of Economic History 64, 4, pp. 964–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Instituto de Reformas Sociales (several issues), Memorias Generales de la Inspección de Trabajo. Madrid: Instituto de Reformas Sociales.Google Scholar
Jain, S. (1975). Size Distribution of Income: A Compilation of Data. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
Kaelble, H. and Thomas, M. (1991). Introduction. In Brenner, Y. S., Kaelble, H. and Thomas, M. (eds.), Income Distribution in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–56Google Scholar
Kakwani, N. and Pernia, E. (2000). What is pro-poor growth?. Asian Development Review 18, pp. 1–16.Google Scholar
Katz, L. and Autor, D. (1999). Changes in the wage structure and earnings inequality. In Ashenfelter, O. C. and Card, D. (eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, vol. 3A. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 1463–1555.Google Scholar
Klasen, S. (2004). In search of the holy grail: how to achieve pro-poor growth?. In Tungodden, B., Stern, N. and Kolstad, I. (eds.), Toward Pro-Poor Policies: Aid, Institutions, Globalization. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 63–93.Google Scholar
Kraay, A. (2006). When is growth pro-poor? Evidence from a panel of countries. Journal of Development Economics 80, pp. 198–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1953). Shares of Upper Income Groups in Income and Savings. New York: NBER.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic growth and income inequality. American Economic Review 45, 1, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Kuznets, S. (1966). Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure, and Spread. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lindert, P. H. (2000). Three centuries of inequality in Britain and America. In Atkinson, A. B. and Bourguignon, F. (eds.), Handbook of Income Distribution. Amsterdam: Elsevier, I, pp. 167–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López, J. H. (2004). Pro-poor−pro-growth: is there a trade off?. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3378.Google Scholar
López, J. H. and Sérven, L. (2006). A normal relationship? Poverty, growth, and inequality. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3814.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llonch, M. (2004). Jornada, salarios y costes laborales en el sector textil catalán. Revista de Historia Industrial 26, pp. 101–40.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2003). The World Economy: Historical Statistics. Paris: OECD Development Centre.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maluquer de Motes Bernet, J. and Llonch, M. (2005). Trabajo y relaciones laborales. In Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X. (eds.), Estadísticas históricas de España. Bilbao: Fundación BBVA, III, pp. 1155–245.Google Scholar
Martin, B. (1990). The Agony of Modernization. Labor and Industrialization in Spain. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martín Aceña, P. and Pons, M. A. (2005). Sistema monetario y financiero. In Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X. (eds.), Estadísticas históricas de España. Madrid: Fundación BBVA, II, pp. 647–706.Google Scholar
Matthews, R. C. O., Feinstein, C. H. and Odling-Smee, J. C. (1982). British Economic Growth 1856–1973. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milanovic, B. (2005). Worlds Apart: Measuring International and Global Inequality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Milanovic, B., Lindert, P. H. and Williamson, J. G. (2007). Measuring Ancient inequality. NBER Working Paper Series 13550 www.nber.org/papers/w13550CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministerio de Trabajo (1931). Estadística de salarios y jornadas de trabajo: 1914–1930. Resultados globales en toda la Nación. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo.Google Scholar
Ministerio de Trabajo (1965–79). Salarios, Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo.Google Scholar
Morrisson, C. (2000). Historical perspectives on income distribution: the case of Europe. In Atkinson, A. B. and Bourguignon, F. (eds.), Handbook of Income Distribution. Amsterdam: Elsevier, I, pp. 217–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrisson, C. and Snyder, W. (2000). The income inequality of France in historical perspective. European Review of Economic History 4, pp. 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Núñez, C. E. (2005). Educación. In Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X. (eds.), Estadísticas históricas de España. Madrid: Fundación BBVA, I, pp. 155–244.Google Scholar
OECD (2006). The Labour Force Statistics Database. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Pan-Montojo, J. (ed.) (2007). Los inspectores de Hacienda en España: una mirada histórica. Madrid, Centro de Estudios Financieros-APIFE.Google Scholar
Payne, S. G. (1993). Spain's First Democracy: The Second Republic, 1931–1936. Maddison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Pérez Castroviejo, P. M. (1992). Clase obrera y niveles de vida en las primeras fases de la industrialización vizcaina. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social.Google Scholar
Pérez Ledesma, M., 1990. Estabilidad y conflicto social. España, de los iberos al 14-D. Madrid: Nerea.Google Scholar
Pigou, A. C. (1920). The Economics of Welfare. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Piketty, T. (2003). Income inequality in France, 1901–1998. Journal of Political Economy 111, 5, pp. 1004–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piketty, T. and Saez, E. (2006). The evolution of top incomes: a historical and international perspective. American Economic Review. Papers and Proceedings. 96, 2, pp. 200–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2003). El progreso económico de España, 1850–2000. Madrid: Fundación BBVA.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2007a). Growth and structural change in Spain, 1850–2000: a European perspective. Revista de Historia Económica/ Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 25, 1, pp. 147–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2007b). Inequality and poverty in Latin America: a long-run exploration. In Hatton, T. J., O'Rourke, K. H. and Taylor, A. M. (eds.), New Comparative Economic History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 291–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2007c). La posición internacional de la economía española, 1850–1935: una estimación preliminar de la balanza de pagos. Universidad Carlos III (mimeo).Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Sanz, J. C. (1996). Growth and macroeconomic performance in Spain (1939–1993). In Crafts, N. and Toniolo, G. (eds.), Economic Growth in Europe since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press/CEPR, pp. 355–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Rosés, J. R. (2003). National income accounts: wages and labor. In Mokyr, J. (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 48–52.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. and Rosés, J. R. (2007). The sources of long-run growth in Spain, 1850–2000. CEPR Discussion Paper 6189.Google Scholar
Quiroga, G. and Coll, S. (2000). Income distribution in the mirror of height differences: the case of Spain 1895–1950. Journal of Income Distribution 9, 107–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravallion, M. (1997). Can high inequality development countries escape absolute poverty?. Economics Letters 56, 51–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravallion, M. (2004). Pro-poor growth: a primer. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper no. 3242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravallion, M., Chen, S. (2003). Measuring pro-poor growth. Economics Letters 78, pp. 93–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reher, D. S. and Ballesteros, E. (1993). Precios y salarios en Castilla la Nueva: la construcción de un índice de salarios reales, 1509–1991. Revista de Historia Económica 11, 1, pp. 101–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Río Otero, C. del, Ruiz-Castillo Ucelay, J. (1999). El enfoque de la dominancia en el análisis de la pobreza. In Maravall Herrero, J. M. (ed.), Dimensiones de la desigualdad. Madrid: Fundación Argentaria/Visor, pp. 429–60.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. (1997). Trade, social insurance, and the limits to globalization. NBER Working Paper 5905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosés, J. R. and Sánchez-Alonso, B. (2004). Regional wage convergence in Spain, 1850–1930. Explorations in Economic History 41, pp. 404–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rossi, N., Toniolo, G. and Vecchi, G. (2001). Is the Kuznets curve still alive? Evidence from Italian household budgets, 1881–1961. Journal of Economic History 61, 4, pp. 904–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruiz-Castillo Ucelay, J. and Sastre García, M. (1999). Desigualdad y bienestar en España en términos reales: 1973–74, 1980–81 y 1990–91. In Maravall Herrero, J. M. (ed.), Dimensiones de la desigualdad. Madrid: Fundación Argentaria/Visor, pp. 345–66.Google Scholar
Sánchez-Alonso, B. (2000). European emigration in the late nineteenth century: the paradoxical case of Spain. Economic History Review 53, pp. 309–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sánchez-Alonso, B. (2007). The other Europeans: immigration into Latin America and the international labour market, 1870–1930. Revista de Historia Económica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History 25, 3, 2007, pp. 395–426.Google Scholar
Silvestre, J. (2003). Migraciones interiores y mercado de trabajo en España, 1877–1936. PhD Dissertation, Universidad de Zaragoza.Google Scholar
Silvestre, J. (2005). Internal migrations in Spain, 1877–1930. European Review of Economic History 9, 233–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soler, R. (1997). La evolución del salario en una empresa textil algodonera. La fábrica de La Rambla de Vilanova i la Geltrú (1891–1925). Revista de Historia Económica 15, 2, pp. 399–411.Google Scholar
Soto Carmona, A. (1989). El trabajo industrial en la España contemporánea: (1874–1936). Barcelona: Anthropos.Google Scholar
Stolper, W. and Samuelson, P. (1941). Protection and real wages. Review of Economic Studies 9, 58–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Székely, M. (2001). The 1990s in Latin America: another decade of persistent inequality, but with somewhat lower poverty. Inter-American Development Bank Working Paper Series 454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tafunell, X. (2005). Construcción y vivienda. In Carreras, A. and Tafunell, X. (eds.), Estadísticas históricas de España. Madrid: Fundación BBVA, I, pp. 455–99.Google Scholar
US Department of Labor (1900). Fifteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor: Wages in Commercial Countries. Washington, DC: GPO.Google Scholar
Vilar, M. (2004). La ruptura posbélica a través del comportamiento de los salarios industriales: nueva evidencia cuantitativa (1908–1963). Revista de Historia Industrial 45, pp. 81–126.Google Scholar
WIDER [World Institute for Development Economics Research] (2005). World Income Database. Helsinki: UNO/WIDER/UNDP.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1982). The structure of pay in Britain, 1710–1911. Research in Economic History 7, pp. 1–54.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1985). Did British Capitalism Breed Inequality?. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (1997). Globalization and inequality, past and present. World Bank Research Observer 12, 2, pp. 117–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, J. G. (2002). Land, labor, and globalization in the Third World, 1870–1940. Journal of Economic History 62, pp. 55–85.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. G. and Lindert, P. H. (1980). American Inequality: A Macroeconomic History. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar