Part 3: Decreasing inequality
This is part three of a three-part series. In part one of this series, I discussed different types of inequality and which ones we should be concerned about. In part two of this series, I discussed measuring inequality. Part two can be found here.
There is a widespread but incorrect view that tremendous progress in a number of areas has coincided with rising global inequality. Inequality of the Human Progress Index (IHPI), created by myself and Vincent Geloso, unequivocally show a decline in global inequality. That applies to a variety of measures, including income inequality, educational inequality and, most importantly, overall inequality. In fact, on all but two of the dimensions of inequality we analyzed, the world has become more equal since 1990.
Global equality has steadily grown since 1990 in life expectancy, internet access and education. Equality of political freedom has improved almost continuously since 1990, although there has been a slight and worrying decline in recent years. This recent reversal does not reverse the long-term trend of increasing access to political freedom, but it reminds us that progress is neither inevitable nor irreversible. Political freedom can be lost if it is not guaranteed. Global incomes became less equal until the mid-2000s, but income equality has improved significantly since then. For adequate nutrition, the trend line has been erratic, with a shift toward greater inequality in the early to mid-2000s. Yet the long-term trend is one of significant gains in nutritional equity, as access to an adequate food supply is becoming more common around the world.
What about the two exceptions? Two indicators in the index show trends towards more inequality: mortality due to outdoor air pollution and infant mortality. As for air pollution deaths, these could be a result of ongoing economic growth. Economists talk about this with references to the ecological Kuznets curve (created by Simon Kuznets), which predicts that pollution will increase along with economic growth until a critical threshold is reached above which pollution decreases. The growing disparity in deaths from outdoor air pollution may indicate that some countries are in the midst of this transition. These developing countries will almost certainly experience advances in environmental quality comparable to those in today’s rich countries, as they too become richer.
When it comes to infant mortality, it is important to remember that infant mortality has been declining in absolute terms around the world. The growing inequality in infant mortality outcomes could be attributed to the fact that the decline in infant mortality in high-income countries since 1990 has been greater than that in low-income countries. In their first year of life, progress since 1990 simply appears to have occurred relatively faster in high-income countries with access to cutting-edge medical technologies.
These exceptions are important, but our key finding is that overall inequality has declined. In fact, compared to the inequality trends in previous inequality indices, which examined fewer dimensions, the IHPI shows a much greater degree of improvement toward global equality. This result suggests that older indexes tended to underestimate widespread progress and the share of improvements in living standards that have gone to the world’s poorest people. Global equality has grown faster than many realize.
In Adam SmithOn that day, for every very rich man, there were at least 500 poor. The inequality was extreme. The wealth explosion since then has made even ordinary people today richer than the wildest 18e century dreams. In recent decades the world has become better off, And these gains are widely shared. Increasing public awareness of the global decline in inequality can increase support for the systems of free enterprise and liberalized international trade that Smith advocated and that have driven absolute poverty to record lows and made people around the world more equal .
Want more?
Nils Karlson, is inequality a problem? a review of The poor and the plutocrats at Ecolib
Angus Deaton on health, wealth and poverty at EcoTalk
Kerianne Lawson on equal economic freedoms at The Great Antidote (with a Great Antidote Extra by Kevin Lavery)
Chelsea Follett is the editor-in-chief of Human Progress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that aims to educate the public about global improvements in well-being by providing free empirical data on long-term trends.