Open AccessInequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human‐Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence
Author(s) -
GALOR ODED,
MOAV OMER,
VOLLRATH DIETRICH
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
review of economic studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 15.641
H-Index - 141
eISSN - 1467-937X
pISSN - 0034-6527
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-937x.2008.00506.x
Subject(s) - pace , divergence (linguistics) , human capital , economics , inequality , distribution (mathematics) , great divergence , capital (architecture) , demographic economics , economic inequality , per capita , development economics , agriculture , labour economics , economic growth , geography , sociology , china , mathematical analysis , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics , mathematics , population , demography , geodesy
This paper suggests that inequality in the distribution of landownership adversely affected the emergence of human‐capital promoting institutions ( e.g . public schooling), and thus the pace and the nature of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy, contributing to the emergence of the great divergence in income per capita across countries. The prediction of the theory regarding the adverse effect of the concentration of landownership on education expenditure is established empirically based on evidence from the beginning of the 20th century in the U.S.