IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/oxford/v35y2019i3p490-517..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Robust determinants of income inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Davide Furceri
  • Jonathan D Ostry

Abstract

While economic theory suggests a wide range of potential determinants of income inequality, there is little consensus regarding the most relevant ones. Such a lack of consensus reflects, to an important extent, the impact of model uncertainty. Using model-averaging techniques—specifically WALS (weighted-average least squares)—to get at a robust set of determinants, our results underscore the multiplicity of factors behind rising national-level inequalities. In the cross-section, the level of development and demographics, as well as unemployment and globalization, seem to be key drivers. Trade and financial globalization have asymmetric effects, with trade integration associated with lower inequality, and financial globalization with higher inequality. Financial deregulation and technological change seem to be important drivers of inequality, particularly in advanced economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Davide Furceri & Jonathan D Ostry, 2019. "Robust determinants of income inequality," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 35(3), pages 490-517.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:35:y:2019:i:3:p:490-517.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/grz014
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:35:y:2019:i:3:p:490-517.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/oxrep .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.