Top income shares in Portugal over the twentieth century

This paper presents new statistical evidence on the long-term evolution of income inequality in Portugal. Portuguese tax sources have been employed to estimate top income shares from 1936 onwards, with the methodology used to derive such inequality measure being taken from Piketty (2001). The new series show a decrease in top income shares during WWII, followed by a recovery up until the early 1950s. From the mid-fifties to the early eighties there was a huge decline in top income shares. Finally, during the 1990s top income shares once again increased. This pattern is very similar to the experience of other countries: the decline of top income shares during the Golden Age has been observed in most other cases, and their increase during the 1990s seems to put Portugal on a par with the experience of Anglo-Saxon countries.