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Inequality and Growth: Some Welfare Calculations

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  • Cordoba, Juan Carlos
  • Verdier, Genevieve

Abstract

The main lotteries individuals face during their lifetime are country and family of birth. How much consumption growth would a newborn sacrifice to avoid these lotteries? We find that he may be willing to sacrifice a large fraction, if not all, to avoid them. Critical elements for the results are time discounting and risk aversion. Both reduce the effect of growth on welfare while risk aversion increases the benefits of more equal outcomes. Another key factor is the staggering size of risk at birth. Our calculations suggest a research agenda that treats growth and inequality as priorities.
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  • Cordoba, Juan Carlos & Verdier, Genevieve, 2010. "Inequality and Growth: Some Welfare Calculations," Staff General Research Papers Archive 32119, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isu:genres:32119
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    1. Juan Carlos Cordoba & Genevieve Verdier, 2005. "Lucas vs. Lucas: On Inequality and Growth," Macroeconomics 0511021, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    Cited by:

    1. Cordoba, Juan-Carlos, 2008. "U.S. inequality: Debt constraints or incomplete asset markets?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 350-364, March.
    2. Cordoba, Juan Carlos, 2012. "Children and the Wealth of Nations," Staff General Research Papers Archive 34989, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    3. repec:aia:ginidp:dp17 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Markus Brueckner & Era Dabla Norris & Mark Gradstein, 2015. "National income and its distribution," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 149-175, June.
    5. Juan‐Carlos Cordoba & Marla Ripoll & Siqiang Yang, 2024. "The Full Recession: Private Versus Social Costs Of Covid‐19," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 547-582, February.
    6. Juan Carlos Cordoba, 2015. "Children, Dynastic Altruism and the Wealth of Nations," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 774-791, October.
    7. Murtin, Fabrice & Boarini, Romina & Cordoba, Juan Carlos & Ripoll, Marla, 2017. "Beyond GDP: Is there a law of one shadow price?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 390-411.
    8. Elena Falcettoni & Vegard Nygaard, 2020. "A Comparison of Living Standards Across the States of America," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2020-041, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Gallardo-Albarrán, Daniel, 2019. "Missed opportunities? Human welfare in Western Europe and the United States, 1913–1950," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 57-73.
    10. Elena Falcettoni & Vegard M. Nygaard, 2023. "A Comparison Of Living Standards Across The United States Of America," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(2), pages 511-542, May.
    11. Giacomo Corneo, 2011. "GINI DP 17: Income Inequality, Value Systems and Macroeconomic Performance," GINI Discussion Papers 17, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    12. Carlos Mendez, 2019. "Lack of Global Convergence and the Formation of Multiple Welfare Clubs across Countries: An Unsupervised Machine Learning Approach," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-17, July.

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