Life Since 1820

choi

The history of inequality | Breaking the camel’s back; What an impressive work of economic history tells you about inequality. Economist, Oct 4, 2014.
www.economist.com/news/finance-a ... inequality-breaking

Note:
(a) “the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development[ ] has teamed up with the University of Utrecht to produce an account of the conditions of life in 25 countries since 1820. * * * It bridges the gap between Maddison’s macroeconomic panorama and microeconomic studies by historians such as Peter Laslett, author of ‘The World We Have Lost,’ about early modern England.”
(i) the book:

How Was Life? Global Well-Being Since 1820. OECD, Oct 2, 2014.
www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/how-was-life_9789264214262-en
(ii) Utrecht University
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_University
(in City of Utrecht, the Netherlands; public; Established 1636)
(iii)
(A) Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost; England before the Industrial Age. 1965 (1st ed) and 1971 (2nd ed)
(B) Peter Laslett, The World We Have Lost; Further explored. 1983.
(C) Peter Laslett (1915-2001; a historian at University of Cambridge)


(b) “Average heights have risen almost everywhere (by 1.1cm more in America in 1820-1990 than in China).”

Chapter 7 Human height since 1820 >>
at page 127--Table 7.3. Population heights in selected countries, 1820s-1980s; Centimetres, decadal averages:

………….GBR …….USA ….CHN …..JPN
1820s ….169.1 …...172.2 ....165.8 ….NA (not available)
1880s ….167.9 …...169.5 ....165.3 ….157.8
1980s ….176.8 …...179.0 ….171.5 …171.7

The above, a summary of the table, shows Americans increased 6.8 cm (179.0- 172.2), whereas Chinese, 5.7 cm. The difference in height increase is 1.1 cm. It’s population height, not just men.

choi

(c) “The purchasing power of construction workers’ wages has grown everywhere, though in Britain the rise was tenfold in 1820-2000; in Indonesia it was only twice. * * * That implies the two-century rise in global inequality must come from elsewhere: from what is called ‘between-country inequality,’ the gap between rich and poor nations. This gap has widened sharply. In 1820 the world’s richest country—Britain—was about five times richer than the average poor nation. Now America is about 25 times wealthier than the average poor country. * * * The driving force of inequality since 1820, in other words, has been industrialisation in the West.”
(i) Chapter 4 Real wages since 1820 >>
at page 81-- Table 4.6. Real wages of building labourers in selected countries, 1820s-2000s; number of subsistence baskets that a daily wage buys, decadal averages:

………….GBR …….USA ….CHN …..JPN
1820s ….16 ……….NA …....3 ……….4
1900s ….28 ……….NA …….5 ……....9
1920s ….30 ……….73 …….3 ……...10
1950s ….36 .……..103 …….5 ……….7
1990s ....120 ……..185 …...22 ……..40


(A) “In 1820 the world’s richest country—Britain—was about five times richer than the average poor nation.”

In THIS table, that “poorest nation” is China (there were not many nations in the world at the time).
(B) “Now America is about 25 times wealthier than the average poor country.”  

In THIS table, that “poorest nation” is India. In 2000s, figures for USA and India are 209 and 7, respectively--almost 30 times.  
(ii) For COMPARISON.

Chapter 3 GDP per capita since 1820 >>
at page 67--Table 3.4. GDP per capita in selected countries, 1820-2010; US dollars at 1990 PPPs:

………….GBR …….USA …...CHN …..JPN
1820 .….2 074 …....1 361 …..600 …….NA
1850 .....2 330 …….1 849 …..600 …….681
1900 ….4 492 …….4 091 …..545 …...1 180
1930 ….5 441 …….6 213 …..568 …..1 850
1950 ….6 939 …….9 561 …..448 …..1 921
1980 …12 931 …..18 577 ...1 061 ...13 428
2010 ….23 777 ….30 491 ...8 032 ...21 935

choi

(d) “Yet in China, Thailand, Germany and Egypt, income inequality was about the same in 2000 as it had been in 1820. * * * Only in a few rich nations—such as France and Japan—do you find the expected long-term decline in income inequality. * * * it [the OECD report] argues, rich countries had more freedom to steer domestic policies and used it to narrow differences between rich and poor.”

Chapter 11 Income inequality since 1820 >>
at page 206 -- Table 11.3. Income inequality in selected countries, 1820-2000; Gini coefficient:

………….GBR …….USA ….CHN …..JPN
1820 ……[59] ……..[57] …..[45] …….[53]
1890 …...[37] ,,,,,,,,,,[46] …..[31] …….[47]
1910 …….42 ……….51 …...39 ……...52
1950 …….30 ……….39 …...32 ……...36
1980 …….34 ……….37 …...30 ……...37
2000 …….40 ……….44 …...44 ……...33

* A footnote of the table states, "Values in brackets [ ] indicate very tentative data."