IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/trb/wpaper/2005.01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Income Inequality and Growth Volatility

Author

Listed:
  • László Kónya

    (School of Economics, La Trobe University)

  • Chris Mouratidis

    (Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the potentially simultaneous relationship between income inequality and growth volatility for seventy countries between 1960 and 2002. We start with the revision of the relevant literature, with special regards to the papers that most strongly motivated our research, Iyigun and Owen (2004) and Breen and Garcia-Pealosa (2004). Then, we perform two types of analysis; a cross-sectional analysis based on country averages of all available annual observations, and a panel-data analysis with fixed effects based on 6 - year averages. The cross-sectional and panel estimation results are markedly different. In the first case, there seems to be a mutual relationship between inequality and volatility across countries, but several significant coefficients have illogical signs. In the second case, there is no evidence of simultaneity within a country; inequality seems to be influenced by volatility, but inequality does not have a direct effect on volatility. Given the limitations of the cross- sectional analysis, we believe that the simultaneous relationship found in the cross-sectional model is rather spurious than real.

Suggested Citation

  • László Kónya & Chris Mouratidis, 2005. "Income Inequality and Growth Volatility," Working Papers 2005.01, School of Economics, La Trobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:trb:wpaper:2005.01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/130892/2005.01.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2005.01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ramey, Garey & Ramey, Valerie A, 1995. "Cross-Country Evidence on the Link between Volatility and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1138-1151, December.
    2. Durlauf, Steven N., 1994. "Spillovers, stratification, and inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 836-845, April.
    3. Alberto Alesina & Dani Rodrik, 1994. "Distributive Politics and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 465-490.
    4. Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Production risk and the functional distribution of income in a developing economy: tradeoffs and policy responses," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 175-208, February.
    5. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    6. Zeldes, Stephen P, 1989. "Consumption and Liquidity Constraints: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(2), pages 305-346, April.
    7. Philippe Aghion & Abhijit Banerjee & Thomas Piketty, 1999. "Dualism and Macroeconomic Volatility," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1359-1397.
    8. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
    9. Li, Hongyi & Squire, Lyn & Zou, Heng-fu, 1998. "Explaining International and Intertemporal Variations in Income Inequality," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 26-43, January.
    10. Oded Galor & Joseph Zeira, 1993. "Income Distribution and Macroeconomics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(1), pages 35-52.
    11. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong-Wha, 2001. "International Data on Educational Attainment: Updates and Implications," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 541-563, July.
    12. Cecilia Garcia-Penalosa & Eve Caroli & Philippe Aghion, 1999. "Inequality and Economic Growth: The Perspective of the New Growth Theories," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(4), pages 1615-1660, December.
    13. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1989. "Testing for Consistency using Artificial Regressions," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 363-384, December.
    14. repec:dau:papers:123456789/7307 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1994. "Is Inequality Harmful for Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 600-621, June.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10091 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Bruno, Michael & Easterly, William, 1998. "Inflation crises and long-run growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 3-26, February.
    18. Kristin J. Forbes, 2000. "A Reassessment of the Relationship between Inequality and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 869-887, September.
    19. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Duflo, Esther, 2003. "Inequality and Growth: What Can the Data Say?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 267-299, September.
    20. Caroli, Eve & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2002. "Risk aversion and rising wage inequality," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 21-26, September.
    21. Checchi, Daniele & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2004. "Risk and the distribution of human capital," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 53-61, January.
    22. repec:oup:qjecon:v:109:y:1994:i:2:p:465-90 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. KONYA, Laszlo & MOURATIDIS, Chris, 2006. "An Empirical Analysis Of The Relationship Between Income Inequality And Growth Volatility In 70 Countries For 1960-2002," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 6(1).
    2. Amparo Castello & Rafael Domenech, 2002. "Human Capital Inequality and Economic Growth: Some New Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(478), pages 187-200, March.
    3. Facchini, François & Jaeck, Louis & Kratou, Hajer, 2024. "The growth-inequality debate revisited by rent-seeking theory: Some empirical evidence," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Isaac Ehrlich & Jinyoung Kim, 2007. "The Evolution of Income and Fertility Inequalities over the Course of Economic Development: A Human Capital Perspective," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 137-174.
    5. Huang, Ho-Chuan (River) & Fang, WenShwo & Miller, Stephen M. & Yeh, Chih-Chuan, 2015. "The effect of growth volatility on income inequality," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 212-222.
    6. Amparo Castelló-Climent, 2010. "Inequality and growth in advanced economies: an empirical investigation," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 8(3), pages 293-321, September.
    7. Lubimov, I.L. (Любимов, И.Л.), 2016. "Inequality and Growth: Theoretical Aspects of Dependence [Неравенство И Экономический Рост: Теоретические Аспекты Зависимости]," Working Papers 2042, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
    8. Kholeka Mdingi & Sin-Yu Ho, 2023. "Income inequality and economic growth: An empirical investigation in South Africa," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 2230027-223, June.
    9. Grossmann, Volker, 2008. "Risky human capital investment, income distribution, and macroeconomic dynamics," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 19-42, March.
    10. Shinhye Chang & Rangan Gupta & Stephen M. Miller, 2018. "Causality Between Per Capita Real GDP and Income Inequality in the U.S.: Evidence from a Wavelet Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 269-289, January.
    11. Cristiano Perugini & Gaetano Martino, 2008. "Income Inequality Within European Regions: Determinants And Effects On Growth," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 54(3), pages 373-406, September.
    12. Ricardo Fort, 2007. "Land inequality and economic growth: a dynamic panel data approach," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 37(2‐3), pages 159-165, September.
    13. Claudia Biancotti, 2004. "A Polarization of Polarization? The Distribution of Inequality 1970-1996," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 487, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    14. Martin Ravallion, 2012. "Why Don't We See Poverty Convergence?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 504-523, February.
    15. Gravier-Rymaszewska, Joanna & Tyrowicz, Joanna & Kochanowicz, Jacek, 2010. "Intra-provincial inequalities and economic growth in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 237-258, September.
    16. Amparo Castelló-Climent, 2004. "A Reassessment Of The Relationship Between Inequality And Growth: What Human Capital Inequality Data Say?," Working Papers. Serie EC 2004-15, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    17. Marrero, Gustavo A. & Rodríguez, Juan G., 2013. "Inequality of opportunity and growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 107-122.
    18. Grabiella Berloffa & Maria Luigia Segnana, 2004. "Trade, inequality and pro-poor growth: Two perspectives, one message?," Department of Economics Working Papers 0408, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    19. Gravina, Antonio Francesco & Lanzafame, Matteo, 2021. "Finance, globalisation, technology and inequality: Do nonlinearities matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 96-110.
    20. Adalgiso Amendola & Roberto Dell�Anno, 2014. "Income inequality and economic growth: an empirical investigation in Mediterranean countries," RIEDS - Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica - The Italian Journal of Economic, Demographic and Statistical Studies, SIEDS Societa' Italiana di Economia Demografia e Statistica, vol. 68(2), pages 35-58, April-Jun.

    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:trb:wpaper:2005.01. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Stephen Scoglio The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Stephen Scoglio to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sblatau.html .

    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.