Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/126346 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2015/028
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
In Sub-Saharan Africa we find some of the highest levels of income inequality in the world. Nevertheless, we generally know very little about the historical development of inequality. In this paper we look at how inequality developed in colonial and post-colonial Botswana. We show that income inequality started rising in the 1940s and peaked in the mid-1970s about the time that the economy switched from cattle to diamonds. Since the 1990s, it has then declined somewhat. Following the tradition of Kuznets we discuss how this rise and decline could be related to a potential structural transformation of the economy.
Subjects: 
Africa
income inequality
structural transformation
JEL: 
N00
D63
O14
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9230-913-8
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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