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Financial development and inequality: Brazil 1985–1994

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  • Manoel Bittencourt

Abstract

We examine the impact of financial development on earnings inequality in Brazil in the 1980s and first half of the 1990s. The evidence– based on panel-time series data and analysis–shows that financial development had a significant and robust effect in reducing inequality during the period. We suggest that this is not only because the poorer can invest the acquired credit in either short or long-term productive activities, but also because those with access to financial markets can insulate themselves against recurrent poor macroeconomic performance, which is exemplified by high rates of inflation. The main implication of the results is that a deeper and more active financial sector, alleviates the high inequality seen in Brazil without distorting economic efficiency.
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  • Manoel Bittencourt, 2010. "Financial development and inequality: Brazil 1985–1994," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 113-130, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:ecopln:v:43:y:2010:i:2:p:113-130
    DOI: 10.1007/s10644-009-9080-x
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    Cited by:

    1. Manoel Bittencourt, 2013. "Economic Growth and Inequality: Evidence from the Young Democracies of South America," Working Papers 361, Economic Research Southern Africa.
    2. Bittencourt, Manoel, 2011. "Inflation and financial development: Evidence from Brazil," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 91-99.
    3. Muhammad Shahbaz & Nanthakumar Loganathan & Aviral Tiwari & Reza Sherafatian-Jahromi, 2015. "Financial Development and Income Inequality: Is There Any Financial Kuznets Curve in Iran?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 357-382, November.
    4. Sofia Vale & Francisco Camões, 2023. "Households’ Exposure to the Financial Sector as a Driver of Inequality: An Analysis of Advanced and Emerging Economies," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(2), pages 362-402, June.
    5. Manoel Bittencourt, 2014. "Economic Growth and Inequality: Evidence from the Young Democracies of South America," International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, in: Macroeconomic Analysis and International Finance, volume 23, pages 37-58, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    6. Manoel Bittencourt, 2010. "Financial Development and Economic Growth in Latin America: Schumpeter is Right!," Working Papers 201014, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    7. Bittencourt, Manoel, 2012. "Financial development and economic growth in Latin America: Is Schumpeter right?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 341-355.
    8. YOUNSI, Moheddine & BECHTINI, Marwa, 2018. "Economic Growth, Financial Development and Income Inequality in BRICS Countries: Evidence from Panel Granger Causality Tests," MPRA Paper 85182, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Yang, Lisha & Ni, Mengying, 2022. "Is financial development beneficial to improve the efficiency of green development? Evidence from the “Belt and Road” countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    10. Sudeshna Ghosh, 2020. "Impact of economic growth volatility on income inequality: ASEAN experience," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 807-850, June.
    11. Kaiyang Zhong, 2022. "Does the digital finance revolution validate the Environmental Kuznets Curve? Empirical findings from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Xie, Qichang & Ma, Di & Raza, Muhammad Yousaf & Tang, Songlin & Bai, Dingchuan, 2023. "Toward carbon peaking and neutralization: The heterogeneous stochastic convergence of CO2 emissions and the role of digital inclusive finance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    13. Hamori, Shigeyuki & Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro, 2012. "The effect of financial deepening on inequality: Some international evidence," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 353-359.
    14. Carolyn Chisadza & Mduduzi Biyase, 2023. "Financial Development and Income Inequality: Evidence From Advanced, Emerging and Developing Economies," Annals of Financial Economics (AFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(01), pages 1-27, March.
    15. Tristan Canare, 2018. "The Effect of Ease of Doing Business on Firm Creation," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 19(2), pages 555-584, November.
    16. Diana Barros & Aurora A. C. Teixeira, 2021. "Unlocking the black box: A comprehensive meta-analysis of the main determinants of within-region income inequality," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 41(1), pages 55-93, February.
    17. Heping Ge & Lianzhen Tang & Xiaojun Zhou & Decai Tang & Valentina Boamah, 2022. "Research on the Effect of Rural Inclusive Financial Ecological Environment on Rural Household Income in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial development; Inequality; Brazil; D31; E44; O11; O54;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean

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