CROSS-NATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF INCOME INEQUALITY - A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION USING ECOLOGICAL-EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Simpson (1990) suggests that curvilinear specifications for educational enrollments and political democracy are appropriate in modeling the cross-national determinants of income inequality, whereas the well-known curvilinear effect of national wealth, or the ''logic of industrialism'' hypothesis, is mediated by education and democracy. This analysis uses the same data on income inequality to replicate Simpson's research. Findings include the following: (1) most of Simpson's central findings can be replicated; (2) using a different measure of development, national wealth does exhibit a direct, curvilinear relationship with income inequality; (3) world-systems/dependency theory finds less support; and (4) agricultural density, used as a proxy for the social and physical carrying capacities of rural areas, has a robust, negative influence on income inequality, in accord with ecological-evolutionary theory.