Long-term trends in income inequality: Winners and losers of economic change in Ghana, 1891–1960

Transitioning to Reduced Inequalities

“…However, some progress has been made towards documenting the extent of inequality in the Gold Coast/Ghana since the 1890s. Drawing on a rich variety of sources including census data, income estimates from colonial blue books, and information from secondary sources, Aboagye and Bolt (2018) were able to create comprehensive social tables that "provide a straightforward way of estimating the distribution of incomes over social classes as they provide both the share in total population and an average income for each social class"(ibid., p. 8). Based on their social tables, they were able to provide a rigorous picture of the colonial social hierarchy, which was ordered as follows: (1) European government officials, (2) large-scale cocoa farmers, (3) cattle holders, (4) African government administrators and executives, (5) other government employees, (6) commercial workers, (7) medium-scale cocoa farmers, (8) skilled workers, (9) unskilled workers, (10) small-scale cocoa farmers, (11) petty traders, (12) domestic servants, (13) food crop farmers, ( 14) agricultural labourers, (15) fishermen, and ( 16) the subsistence group.…”

“…In general, settler colonies-such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia-had high levels of inequality due to their extractive policies as well as the concentration of wealth in the hands of a small number of European settlers. On the other hand, non-settler colonies such as Ghana and Nigeria were characterised by lower levels of inequality because Africans largely remained in control of productive resources (Aboagye and Bolt 2018). However, the reality is much more complex than this broad differentiation would suggest.…”

Living Standards and Wellbeing in Africa, an Economic History Perspective

“…As a result, none of the existing theories on long term inequality, from Kuznets to Piketty are based on evidence from Africa (Kuznets, 1955;Piketty, 2017;Scheidel, 2017). Together with Ellen Hillbom from Lund University, Michiel de Haas from Wageningen University and various other scholars within our African Long-term Inequality Trends (aflit) project 1 , we are working on measuring historical inequality for African countries under colonial rule, to better understand the underlying determinants of long run inequality dynamics (Aboagye & Bolt, 2021;Bolt & Hillbom, 2016;De Haas, 2022;Hillbom & Bolt & De Haas & Tadei, 2021;Hillbom & Bolt, 2018;Tadei & Alfani, 2019).…”

“…However, in most colonies in Africa, indigenous farmers initiated and shouldered most of the production of export commodities. In Ghana for example, after the introduction of cocoa at the end of the 19 th century, exports expanded rapidly through African initiative, making the colony the world's largest cocoa exporter at the beginning of the 20 th century (Aboagye & Bolt, 2021;Austin, 2014Austin, , p. 1035. How, and to what extent, this peasant farmer led export-oriented commercialization affected income inequality has not yet been fully explored.…”

Assessment of economic inequality during three decades in Aceh Province of Indonesia

“…Other important social indicators include the poverty level, average wage earner's working hours per week, rate of unemployment, and perinatal mortality rate (Kaplan et al, 2018;Rosicova et al, 2011). An increase in the income inequality of Ghana people during three decades ) could be due to the rising incomes of skilled workers, government employees, and commercial workers (Aboagye and Bolt, 2021). Creation of favourable environment does not depend on the income level but can be expected to improve future income level to more equitable regional income distribution (de Sherbinin et al, 2007).…”