The historical roots of inequality

voxeu.org

9 pointscwan3 comments

Slightly off topic but, I thoroughly enjoyed Jared Diamond's Gun's Germs and Steel[1]. Though his argument has some weaknesses, it makes an interesting case for why racial inequalities exist in the fashion that they do.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel

It's a great read, although as you say there are plenty of weaknesses. One of the theories this paper looks at is the impact on historical land distribution inequalities to the situation today, and that feels like a very Diamondesque argument.

interesting analysis, arguing that of three ways that inequality rooted in slavery continues to have impact, it's the "human capital" impact of educational differences that has the primary impact today.

the full paper is at http://www.rcfea.org/RePEc/pdf/wp26_10.pdf

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