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1 Capitalism, cronyism, and inequality

Randall G. Holcombe

I. Introduction

Inequality in capitalist economies has been an issue in economics since the beginning of capitalism. Capitalism emerged as a distinct economic system in the 1700s.¹ Pre-capitalist societies were marked with substantial inequality of income and wealth, but that inequality was the result of inherited wealth and inherited status. Some people were born into royalty and nobility and were more prosperous because of their inherited status. Princes were more prosperous than commoners not because of their economic productivity but just by the good fortune of their birth. The emergence of a market economy along with the idea, developed around the same time, of political equality, ...

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