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The Long-run Determinants of Inequality: What Can We Learn from Top Income Data?

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Author Info
Roine, Jesper () (Stockholm School of Economics)
Vlachos, Jonas () (Stockholm University)
Waldenström, Daniel () (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

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Abstract

This paper studies determinants of income inequality using a newly assembled panel of 16 countries over the entire twentieth century. We focus on three groups of income earners: the rich (P99-100), the upper middle class (P90-99), and the rest of the population (P0-90). The results show that periods of high economic growth disproportionately increases the top percentile income share at the expense of the rest of the top decile. Financial development is also pro-rich and the outbreak of banking crises is associated with reduced income shares of the rich. Trade openness has no clear distributional impact (if anything openness reduces top shares). Government spending, however, is negative for the upper middle class and positive for the nine lowest deciles but does not seem to affect the rich. Finally, tax progressivity reduces top income shares and when accounting for real dynamic effects the impact can be important over time.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Research Institute of Industrial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 721.

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Length: 47 pages
Date of creation: 16 Oct 2007
Date of revision: 30 Apr 2008
Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0721

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Related research
Keywords: Top incomes; Income inequality; Financial development; Trade openness; Government spending; Taxation; Economic development;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
N30 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth - - - General, International, or Comparative

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  1. Hongyi Chen & Lars Jonung & Olaf Unteroberdoerster, 2009. "Lessons for China from Financial Liberalization in Scandinavia," Working Papers 262009, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research. [Downloadable!]
  2. Emmanuel Saez & Joel B. Slemrod & Seth H. Giertz, 2009. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," NBER Working Papers 15012, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2009. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," NBER Working Papers 15408, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Robert J. Gordon & Ian Dew-Becker, 2008. "Controversies about the Rise of American Inequality: A Survey," NBER Working Papers 13982, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Roine, Jesper & Waldenström, Daniel, 2009. "Common Trends and Shocks to Top Incomes – A Structural Breaks Approach," Working Paper Series 801, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
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