Simon Kuznets podcast

This is from Economics in Ten podcast, season five, episode one. Kuznets has at least two curves named after him, which is a reasonable indicator of influence. The most famous is the Kuznets curve, which predicts an inverted U-shape relationship between income per head and inequality: as countries develop, inequality first rises and then falls. The episode also covers the environmental Kuznets curve (a similar pattern proposed for environmental degradation) and Kuznets’s foundational work in developing national income accounting and the GDP measure. As one of the architects of how we measure economic activity, his influence on the discipline is enormous. Accessible for students covering inequality and economic development, and useful for discussions about whether growth automatically improves living standards.  Listen here