ABSTRACT
The Kuznets curve, also known as the Kuznets hypothesis, suggests that the curve for income inequality (see income distribution) traces an inverted-U shape through the economic development or income growth process. The curve is named after the economist, Simon Kuznets (1901–85). The hypothesis states income inequality is low when per capita incomes are low, inequality increases with income up to some indeterminate point, and falls with further income growth. This proposition, first published in 1955, became one of the “stylized facts of development” and one of its most thoroughly researched ideas in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, accumulating studies have shown that there is little empirical evidence of such a curve for income inequality. Instead, the idea of an inverted-U curve through income growth has been adopted by environmental economists and analysts. They argue that a similar temporal relationship between income growth and environmental conditions exists; there are declines in environmental conditions (manifested in higher levels of air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity etc.) during income growth from very low incomes, followed by improvements when incomes increase further (see brown environmental agenda) .
