Global income inequality measures and bibliography of household surveys, 1880-1960

Dataset consisting of inequality measures for 46 nation states and a global bibliography of all known household expenditure surveys covering the period roughly 1880-1960. Each entry notes when and where the survey was carried out and salient characteristics of the survey such as number of households, whether income and/or expenditure data are collected etc. These bibliographies are organised by six world regions and then by 118 nation states. For a sub-set of the most useful surveys we have estimated various inequality measures from the published data for 46 nation states, organised by world region.<p>This project will calculate new estimates of world inequality in the period from the end of the nineteenth century until the 1960s, based on the results of household expenditure surveys.
Our investigations have located a vast cache of household expenditure surveys for the period. Thus far, we have identified around 800 household surveys from around the world, carried out between the 1880s and 1960s, of which around half are of sufficient scope as to be potentially useful for the investigation of inequality. We will extract the reported demographic and expenditure data by income group from these reports and use them to estimate parameters of the income distribution.
Using these estimates, we will investigate the changing nature of inequality within a number of key nation states, and also investigate the time path and geography of global inequality 1880-1960. In addition, we would use these data to estimate other indicators of living conditions, such as nutritional attainment, which may provide further insights into the impact of industrialisation on inequality.</p>