Provision

The ''new inequality'' of the 1980''s and 1990''s has recently given rise to a lively debate about the relationship between economic growth and income distribution. This debate is the background of the study by Lee Soltow an Jan Luiten van Zanden, who, staying close to the sources, have mapped in some detail the long-term development of income and wealth inequality in the Netherlands between c. 1500 and the present. Their starting point is the hypothesis of Simon Kuznets that income inequality increased during the first phase of modern economic growth, but that in the second phase, which begins in most Western countries around the turn of the twentieth century, a marked levelling out of income differences followed. The development of inequality during the Golden Age, when growth resulted in a marked increase in inequality seems to confirm this idea. However, the analysis of the connection between growth and inequality in the nineteenth and twentieth century leads them to question the Kuznets hypothesis. Lee Soltow is professor of Economics at Ohio University (Athens). Among his publications on the subject are: ''Distribution of wealth and income in the United States in 1978'' (1989) and ''Men and wealth in the United States 1850-1870'' (1975). Jan Luiten van Zanden is professor of Economic and Social History at Utrecht University (the Netherlands). Among his publications on the subject are: ''The economic history of the Netherlands 1914-1955: a small open economy in the ''long'' twentieth century'' (1998). ''The economic development of the Netherlands since 1870'' (1996) and ''The rise and decline of Holland''s economy: merchant capitalism and the labour market'' (1993).