Sascha Klocke | Lund University (original) (raw)

A common theme in research on long-term trends in inequality, especially concerning the Global So... more A common theme in research on long-term trends in inequality, especially concerning the Global South, is that of path dependence; specifcally that high levels of present day inequality and low levels of economic development are rooted in the establishment of extractve insttutons and high inequality under colonial rule. This paper seeks to address this theme by investgatng the longterm trend in inequality in Tanzania using original Gini estmates for colonial inequality levels, about which very litle is known to-date, as well as re-evaluated estmates for post-colonial inequality. Tanzania is an interestng case: like in other former Britsh colonies in sub-Saharan Africa, inequality at the tme of independence in 1961 was relatvely high. In contrast to most of the other colonies, however, inequality fell signifcantly in the post-colonial period, and remained at low levels even during the structural adjustment period and the recent growth spurt startng at the turn of the millennium. It wi...