Data on Inequality and the Inequality of Data: The Last Two Centuries

摘要

This paper attempts a number of tasks that will further the study of world-historical human inequality, by arguing for a comprehensive understanding of inequality and by informally comparing and aggregating multiple datasets. The paper briefly surveys and critiques the existing corpus of inequality data, noting areas of overlap, opportunities for harmonization of data, and the coverage of the historical information. The inclusion of micro-level data from historical scholarship that is not in communication with the social scientific studies is essential to further the field. The paper concludes with a regional and global narrative of human inequality over the last two centuries.