Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Sweatshop and Underpollution Question

[Brad DeLong <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Milanovic found an increase in global inequality - measured at the
> level of individuals, not countries - between 1988 and 1993. While
> average Chinese incomes increased, inequality has increased within
> China, so the impact on global inequality (among individuals, not
> nations) isn't immediately obvious. Elsewhere, gaps between the U.S.
> and South Asia, Latin America, and Africa - measured at the
> national, not the individual level - have increased. So what's your
> evidence to the contrary?
>
> Doug

Well, gee. I have to finish my book...

Robert Summers has always said that 80% of world inequality is
between nations, and only 20% within nations. At the moment it's a
guess that increasing the incomes of Indians by 50% (with little
increase in inequality) and quadrupling the incomes of 400 million
Chinese (while leaving 800 million about as well-off as they were in
1990) has to reduce the variance of log(income).

Of course, this is sensitive to how you measure it: the variance of
income has surely increased in the 1990s...


Brad DeLong