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The Dynamics Of Wealth Inequality In A Simple Ramsey Model: A Note On The Role Of Production Flexibility

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  • García-Peñalosa, Cecilia
  • Turnovsky, Stephen J.

Abstract

It has been shown that the Ramsey growth model with agents that differ in their initial wealth endowments is compatible with a wide range of distributional outcomes, yet it is difficult to characterize under which circumstances the distribution of wealth becomes more or less unequal. In this note, we characterize the steady state distribution of wealth and compare it to the initial distribution, obtaining analytical conditions for one to be more skewed than the other. We show that whether wealth inequality increases or decreases during the transition to the steady state depends on simple and intuitive conditions on parameter values. Standard values for these parameters indicate that it is more likely that wealth inequality decreases as the economy accumulates capital.

Suggested Citation

  • García-Peñalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2009. "The Dynamics Of Wealth Inequality In A Simple Ramsey Model: A Note On The Role Of Production Flexibility," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 250-262, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:macdyn:v:13:y:2009:i:02:p:250-262_07
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Stefano Bosi & Raouf Boucekkine & Thomas Seegmuller, 2010. "The dynamics of wealth inequality under endogenous fertility: A remark on the Barro-Becker model with heterogenous endowments," Working Papers halshs-00503195, HAL.
    2. Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Stephen Turnovsky, 2008. "Consumption externalities: a representative consumer model when agents are heterogeneous," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 37(3), pages 439-467, December.
    3. Nakamoto, Yasuhiro, 2015. "Heterogeneous EIS and Wealth Distribution in a Neoclassical Growth Model," MPRA Paper 67026, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lim, G.C. & McNelis, Paul D., 2016. "Income growth and inequality: The threshold effects of trade and financial openness," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 403-412.
    5. Lin, Pei-Chien & Huang, Ho-Chuan (River), 2012. "Inequality convergence revisited: Evidence from stationarity panel tests with breaks and cross correlation," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 316-325.
    6. Juin-Jen Chang & Jang-Ting Guo & Wei-Neng Wang, 2021. "On Government Spending and Income Inequality under Monopolistic Competition," Working Papers 202103, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.
    7. Leonhard Frerick & Georg Müller-Fürstenberger & Martin Schmidt & Max Späth, 2022. "Complementarity Modeling of a Ramsey-Type Equilibrium Problem with Heterogeneous Agents," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 1135-1154, October.
    8. G. C. Lim & Paul D. McNelis, 2014. "Income Inequality, Trade and Financial Openness," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2014n07, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.

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