Editing Kuznets curve (section)

{{Short description|Hypothesized relationship between economic development and inequality level}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
[[Image:Kuznets curve-en.svg|320px|thumb|Hypothetical Kuznets curve.]]
[[File:Piketty top decile share national income en.png|thumb|319x319px|A measure of income inequality: the top decile share in the US national income, 1910–2010.<ref>Based on Table TI.1 of the [http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/en/capital21c2 supplement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508185857/http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/en/capital21c2 |date=8 May 2014 }} to Thomas Piketty's ''[[Capital in the Twenty-First Century]]''.</ref> [[Thomas Piketty|Piketty]] argues that Kuznets mistook the 1930-1950 decrease in inequality for the endpoint of its development. Since 1950, inequality has again reached pre-WW II levels. Similar trends are visible in European countries.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Capital in the Twenty-First Century|last=Piketty|first=Thomas|publisher=Belknap|year=2013|pages=24}}</ref>]]
The '''Kuznets curve''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ʌ|z|n|ɛ|t|s}}) expresses a hypothesis advanced by economist [[Simon Kuznets]] in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>[http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/kuznets.htm Kuznets profile]{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090918075800/http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/kuznets.htm |date=18 September 2009 }} at [[New School for Social Research]]: "...his discovery of the inverted U-shaped relation between income inequality and economic growth..."</ref> According to this hypothesis, as an economy [[economic development|develops]], [[market forces]] first increase and then decrease [[economic inequality]]. As more data has become available with the passage of time since the hypothesis was expressed, the data shows waves rather than a curve.