Pembangunan Ekonomi, Agihan Pendapatan dan Hipotesis U-Terbalik Kuznets: Penilaian Semula

Abstract

Since Simon Kuznets revealed his Inverted-U Hypothesis in 1955, man)' researchers have proven that this hypothesis was correct. This hypothesis actually looked at the relationship between income distribution and stage of development and argued that the relationship followed an inverted-U. This is to say income distribution becomes more unequal at the early stage of development and more equal when level of development rised. Kuznets and other researchers after him used the traditional concept of development, which was based on the Gross National Product (GNP) or the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) percapita. Nevertheless, this measure cannot represent the real development because it is merely based on the economic indicator. A better definition of development must include social indicators like literacy rate, educational attainment, health, housing and other social infrastructures. The United Nations did the recent measure of development by constructing the Human Development Index (HDI). This article attempts to re analyse the Kuznets Inverted-U Hypothesis by looking at the relationship between income distribution and HDI. The results from this analysis are then compared with the results using the Kuznets approach. Further, this article examines other determinant factors of income distribution.