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Income Inequality and Economic Growth: Heterogeneity and Nonlinearity

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  • Hailemariam Abebe

    (Monash University, Department of Economics, Wellington Rd, Clyaton, VIC, 3800, Australia)

  • Dzhumashev Ratbek

    (Monash University, Department of Economics, Wellington Rd, Clyaton, VIC, 3800, Australia)

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between income inequality and economic growth in a broad panel of countries over the period from 1965 to 2014. We utilize an improved dataset for inequality with reduced measurement errors, which fosters cross-country comparability. In addition, we investigate whether accounting for heterogeneity across countries alters the estimated effect of inequality on growth, and whether the inequality-growth nexus varies with the level of income inequality. Our estimates show that after accounting for heterogeneity, the nonlinear growth effect of income inequality remains statistically and economically significant. We find a threshold effect of inequality on economic growth, and this threshold is higher for developing economies than for developed economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Hailemariam Abebe & Dzhumashev Ratbek, 2020. "Income Inequality and Economic Growth: Heterogeneity and Nonlinearity," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 24(3), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:sndecm:v:24:y:2020:i:3:p:15:n:5
    DOI: 10.1515/snde-2018-0084
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    2. Combes, Jean-Louis & Minea, Alexandru & Sawadogo, Pegdéwendé Nestor, 2021. "Does the composition of government spending matter for government bond spreads?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 409-420.
    3. Abebe HAILEMARIAM, 2024. "Income and differential fertility: evidence from oil price shocks," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(1), pages 31-54, March.
    4. Mohamed Ali Chroufa & Nouri Chtourou, 2022. "Inequality and Growth in Tunisia: New Evidence from Threshold Regression," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(2), pages 901-924, September.
    5. Chroufa, Mohamed Ali & Chtourou, Nouri, 2023. "Financial development threshold effect on wealth inequality-economic growth nexus: Evidence from MENA economies," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    6. Oğuzhan Çepni & Rangan Gupta & Zhihui Lv, 2020. "Threshold effects of inequality on economic growth in the US states: the role of human capital to physical capital ratio," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(19), pages 1546-1551, November.
    7. Karen Tumanyants & Sergey Arzhenovskiy & Olga Arkova & Maksim Monastyryov & Irina Pichulina, 2023. "Inequality and Economic Growth in Russia: Econometric Analysis," Russian Journal of Money and Finance, Bank of Russia, vol. 82(2), pages 52-77, June.

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