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The Inequality-Growth Relationship - An Empirical Reassessment

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  • Kolev, Galina
  • Niehues, Judith

Abstract

Recently, some influential empirical studies found evidence in favor of a negative relationship between income inequality and economic growth, implying the conclusion that inequality reducing policies will foster economic growth. The studies have in common that they all rely on the System GMM dynamic panel estimator. We argue that this estimator is most likely to suffer from a severe weak instrument problem in the inequality-growth setting because lagged differences of inequality have practically no explanatory power for currrent inequality levels. Thus, it is biased in the direction of OLS and fails to control for country heterogeneity. Using traditional Fixed Effects models or Difference GMM estimators yields positive coefficents on the inequality variable. Furthermore, we find evidence for a non-linear relationship between inequality and growth when considering a sample of developed and developing economies. Thus, the effect of net income inequality on growth seems to be negative only for less-developed countries and for countries with high levels of inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Kolev, Galina & Niehues, Judith, 2016. "The Inequality-Growth Relationship - An Empirical Reassessment," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145909, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145909
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sarah Voitchovsky, 2005. "Does the Profile of Income Inequality Matter for Economic Growth?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 273-296, September.
    2. Alesina, Alberto & Perotti, Roberto, 1996. "Income distribution, political instability, and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1203-1228, June.
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    4. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond, 2000. "GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-340.
    5. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    6. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    7. Perotti, Roberto, 1994. "Income distribution and investment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 827-835, April.
    8. 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.
    9. Barro, Robert J, 2000. "Inequality and Growth in a Panel of Countries," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 5-32, March.
    10. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ludwig Schulz & Helge Tolksdorf & Ayşe Yüreklí & Erdal Yalcin & Galina Kolev, 2016. "The EU’s Difficult Relation to Turkey: How Does Turkey’s Future Look?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 69(21), pages 03-25, November.
    2. Jochimsen Beate & Raffer Christian, 2018. "Herausforderungen bei der Messung von Wohlfahrt," Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 67(1), pages 63-100, May.
    3. Meenagh, David & Minford, Patrick & Yang, Xiaoliang, 2018. "A heterogeneous-agent model of growth and inequality for the UK," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2018/17, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    4. Devdatta Ray & Mikael Linden, 2018. "Health, inequality and income: a global study using simultaneous model," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 7(1), pages 1-28, December.
    5. Jochen Hartwig, 2018. "Wachstumsfolgen von Einkommensungleichheit – Theorie, empirische Evidenz und Politikempfehlungen," Chemnitz Economic Papers 020, Department of Economics, Chemnitz University of Technology.
    6. Florian Dorn, 2016. "On Data and Trends in Income Inequality around the World," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(4), pages 54-64, December.
    7. Badi H. Baltagi & Georges Bresson & Jean-Michel Etienne, 2020. "Growth Empirics: a Bayesian Semiparametric Model With Random Coefficients for a Panel of OECD Countries," Advances in Econometrics, in: Essays in Honor of Cheng Hsiao, volume 41, pages 217-253, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    8. repec:ces:ifodic:v:14:y:2016:i:4:p:19267790 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Till van Treeck & Judith Niehues & Galina Kolev & Piotr Pysz & Peter Hampe & Andreas Peichl & Marc Stöckli & Georg Cremer, 2018. "How Fair Is the World? – Social Inequality and Economic Growth," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 71(15), pages 03-25, August.
    10. Florian Dorn, 2016. "On Data and Trends in Income Inequality around the World," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 14(04), pages 54-64, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

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