Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15853
Authors: Leandro Prados de la Escosura
Abstract: The study of international well-being and its distribution remains focused on income. This paper addresses multidimensional well-being from a capabilities perspective during the last one-and-a-half centuries. Relative inequality (population-weighted) fell in health and education since the late 1920s, due to the globalisation of mass schooling and the health transition, but only dropped from 1970 onwards in terms of political and civil liberties, and declined since 1900 for augmented human development. These results are at odds with per capita income inequality that rose over time and only shrank from 1990 onwards. Relative and absolute well-being distribution behaved differently, with the distance between countries shrinking in relative terms but widening in absolute terms. Countries in the middle and lower deciles of the world distribution achieved the largest relative gain over the last century. Education and political and civil liberties were the main contributors to the evolution of augmented human development inequality, although longevity made a substantial contribution until the 1920s
Keywords: inequality; wellbeing; life expectancy; schooling; civil and political liberties; GDP; augmented human development
JEL Codes: I00; N30; O15; O50
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| relative inequality in health and education (I14) | decline since the late 1920s (N12) |
| globalization of mass schooling and health transitions (I14) | relative inequality in health and education (I14) |
| increase in per capita income inequality (D31) | contrast with decline in relative inequality in health and education (I14) |
| political and civil liberties (P26) | long-term decline in inequality since 1900 (D31) |
| population-weighted inequality (I14) | grew until 1970 (N12) |
| relative inequality in augmented human development (O15) | decline since 1900 (N92) |
| schooling and political liberties (I24) | contributors to decline in relative inequality in augmented human development since 1900 (O15) |