Income Distribution in Argentina over the Last Century: Exceptionalism or Convergence?

FACUNDO ALVAREDO; GUILLERMO CRUCES; LEONARD GASPARINI

Kennedy School, Harvard University

Conferencia; Argentina Exceptionalism: A Hundred Years of Economic Divergence; 2009

Harvard University

The focus of this chapter is placed on the distribution of incomes in Argentina. Any explanation of the dynamics of inequality in Argentina faces strong limitations, which are reinforced by the peculiar history of the country. We have adopted here a historical perspective. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 focuses on the dynamics of top incomes in Argentina since 1932 based on income tax statistics. Section 3 discusses the evolution of income inequality over the last thirty years based on more detailed survey data. Section 4 is devoted to the conclusions.