ABSTRACT
Simon Kuznets highlighted that a diverging path of income inequality could be temporary as it was destined to decrease in the wake of a progressive shift from low-productivity agriculture towards high-productivity industry. Innovative activity has in fact long been considered as the main determinant of economic growth with no regards for its distributive impact. The innovative activity that results from technological change impacts the society in such a way as to supply it with a “free lunch”, that comes from the possibility the technological change gives to firms to produce more with the same amount of inputs. The rising inequality in wages that most countries have experienced since the late 1970s has spurred extensive discussions. When speaking of global inequality, it is preliminarily important to highlight the differences that exist in its different components: inequality between countries and inequality within countries.
