Changes in agglomeration and productivity are poor predictors of inequality across the archaeological record.

ABSTRACT: We address three basic issues regarding the long-term dynamics of inequality in society. First, we consider the interpretation of residence sizes in socioeconomic terms by comparing statistical patterns extracted from the Global Dynamics of Inequality (GINI) Project database with those from the 21st-century United States. Second, we examine the degree to which the size and productivity of human networks is systematically related to inequality. Finally, we investigate relationships between productivity and productivity growth distributions for patterns of inequality and development across preindustrial societies. We find that across preindustrial societies residence size distributions provide a reasonable proxy for the distribution of productivity (income, a flow of physical and social reso

SUBMITTER: Ortman SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12037055 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature