http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/3970
Latin America is much more unequal than Asia and the rich post-industrial nations, and some have argued that high inequality appeared very early in the post-conquest Americas. This column says that Latin America was indeed unequal on the eve of its industrial revolution, but less unequal than Western Europe on the eve of its industrial revolution. The uniqueness of Latin American inequality is its twentieth century history, not the four centuries prior.
