Publicado

2014-07-01

Income inequality and economic growth: new evidence from latin america

Desigualdad en la distribución del ingreso y crecimiento económico: nueva evidencia de latinoamérica.

Desigualdade na distribuição da renda e crescimento econômico: nova evidência da américa latina

Palabras clave:

Income inequality, economic growth, level of development, developing economies, Latin America. (en)
Desigualdad del ingreso, crecimiento económico, economías en desarrollo, Latinoamérica (es)
Desigualdade da renda, crescimento econômico, economias em desenvolvimento, América Latina (pt)

Descargas

Autores/as

  • Fernando Delbianco Universidad Nacional del Sur
  • Carlos Dabús Universidad Nacional del Sur
  • María Ángeles Caraballo Universidad de Sevilla

This paper explores the relationship between the inequality of income distribution and the economic growth of 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries during the 1980-2010 period. The study shows that the features of this relationship depend on the income level. In general, inequality is harmful to economic growth. However, when it comes to the upper tail of the richer countries' income distribution, higher inequality encourages economic growth and the relation becomes positive. Thus, contrary to the economic policy recommendations for the richer countries, our evidence suggests that progressive redistributive policies in favor of poorer layers of population promote economic growth in lower income economies.

En este artículo se estudia la relación entre desigualdad del ingreso y crecimiento para 20 economías de América Latina y el Caribe, para el periodo 1980-2010. Los resultados muestran que la relación entre desigualdad e ingreso depende fuertemente del nivel de ingreso que un país presente. En general, la desigualdad afecta de manera negativa al crecimiento. En cambio, para los países más ricos, mayor desigualdad determina mayor crecimiento. Por ende, las recomendaciones de política que surgen de los resultados de este artículo serían aquellas con objetivo de reforzar las políticas redistributivas progresivas en los países de menor ingreso.

Neste artigo, é estudada a relação entre desigualdade de renda e crescimento para 20 economias da América Latina e o Caribe, para o período 1980-2010. Os resultados mostram que a relação entre desigualdade e renda depende muito do nível de renda que um país apresentar. Em geral, a desigualdade afeta de maneira negativa o crescimento. Em compensação, para os paíes mais ricos, maior desigualdade determina maior crescimento. Portanto, as recomendações de política que surgem dos resultados deste artigo seriam aquelas com o objetivo de reforçar as políticas redistributivas progressivas nos países de menor renda.

Descargas

Los datos de descargas todavía no están disponibles.

Citas

Abida, Z., & Sghaier, I. (2012). Economic growth and income inequality: Empirical evidence from North African countries. Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business, 15(2), 29-44.

Alesina, A., & Perotti, R. (1994). The political economy of growth: A critical survey of the recent literature. The World Bank Economic Review, 8(3), 351-371.

Alesina, A., & Perotti, R. (1996). Income distribution, political instability, and investment. European Economic Review, 40(6), 1203-1228.

Atkinson, A., & Brandolini, A. (2001). Promise and pitfalls in the use of 'secondary' datasets: Income inequality in OECD countries as a case study. Journal of Economic Literature, 39(3), 771-99.

Atolia, M., Chatterjee, S., & Turnovsky, S. J. (2012). Growth and inequality: Dependence on the time path of productivity increases (and other structural changes). Journal of Economic Dynamics & Control, 36(3) 331-348.

Barro, R. J. (2000). Inequality and growth in a panel of countries. Journal of Economic Growth, 5, 5-32.

Barnejee, A. V., & Duflo, E. (2003). Inequality and growth: What can the data say? Journal of Economic Growth, 8, 267-99.

Fallah, B., & Partridge, M. (2007). The elusive inequality-economic growth relationship: Are there differences between cities and the countryside? Annals of Regional Science, Springer, 41(2), 375-400.

Bjornskov, C. (2008). The growth-inequality association: Government ideology matters. Journal of Development Economics, 87, 300-308.

Chambers, D., & Krause, A. (2010). Is the relationship between inequality and growth affected by physical and human capital accumulation? Journal of Economic Inequality, 8 (2), 153-172.

Chen, B-L. (2003). An inverted-U relationship between inequality and long-run growth. Economic Letters, 78(2), 205-212.

Dabús, C., & Zinni, B. (2005). No convergencia en Latinoamérica. Anales de la XL Reunión Anual de la AAEP, November 2005.

Dominicis, L., Floraxnn, R., & Groot, H. (2008). A meta-analysis on the relationship between income inequality and economic growth. Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 55(5), 654-682.

Deininger, K., & Squire, L. (1996). A new data set measuring income inequality. World Bank Economic Review, 10(3), 563-91.

Deininger, K., & Squire, L. (1998). New ways of looking at old issues: Inequality and growth. Journal of Development Economics, 57, 259-87.

Forbes, K. J. (2000). A reassessment of the relationship between inequality and growth. American Economic Review, 9(4), 869-87.

Galbraith, J., & Kum, H. (2006). Estimating the inequality of household incomes: A statistical approach to the creation of a dense and consistent global data set (Working Paper 22). UTIP.

Galor, O., & Zeira, J. (1993). Income distribution and macroeconomics. Review of Economic Studies, 60(1), 35-52.

Galor, O., & Moav, O. (2004). From physical to human capital accumulation: Inequality and the process of development. Review of Economic Studies, 71, 1001-26.

Gasparini, L., & Lustig, N. (2011). The rise and fall of income inequality in Latin America (Working Paper 0118). CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

González, G., Dabús, C., & Monterubbianesi, P. (2013). Phases of convergence in Latin America: The technological drivers. Journal of International Development, forthcoming.

Herzer, D., & Vollmer, S. (2012). Inequality and growth: Evidence from panel cointegration. Journal of Economic Inequality, 10(4), 489-503.

Jiménez, é. M. (2006). Relaciones entre democracia y desarrollo en los países andinos. Una reflexión desde la economía política. Revista de economía institucional, 14, 167-189.

Kuznets, S. (1955). Economic growth and income inequality. American Economic Review, 45, 1-28.

Levine, R., & Renelt, D. (1992). A sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions. American Economic Review, 82(4), 942-963.

Li, H., & Zou, H. (1998). Income inequality is not harmful for growth: Theory and evidence. Review of Development Economics, 2, 318-34.

Lin, S.-C., Huang, H.-C., & Weng, H.-W. (2006). A semiparametric partially linear investigation of the Kuznets' hypothesis. Journal of Comparative Economics, 34(3), 634-647.

Lin, S.-C., Huang, H-C, Kimz, D.H., & Chih-ChuanYeh, C.-C. (2009). Nonlinearity between inequality and growth. Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, 13(2), 1-18.

Malinen, T. (2012). Estimating the long-run relationship between income inequality and economic development. Empirical Economics, 42, 209-233.

Malinen, T. (2013). Inequality and growth: Another look with a new measure and method. Journal of International Development, 25(1), 122-138.

Martínez, C. (2013). El efecto de la desigualdad y el acceso al crédito sobre la acumulación de capital humano. Ensayos sobre Economía Política, 31(72), 18-34.

Partridge, M. (1997). Is inequality harmful for growth? Comment. American Economic Review, 87(5), 1019-1032.

Partridge, M. (2005). Does income distribution affect U.S. State economic growth?, Journal of Regional Science, 45(2), 363-394.

Persson, T., & Tabellini, G. (1994). Is inequality harmful for growth?. American Economic Review, 84(3), 600-621.

Pesaran, M., & Smith, R. (1995). Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels. Journal of Econometrics, 68, 79-113.

SEDLAC. http://sedlac.econo.unlp.edu.ar/eng/

Shin, I. (2012). Income inequality and economic growth. Economic Modelling, 29(5), 2049-2057

Stewart, R., & Moslares, C. (2012). Income inequality and economic growth: The case of Indian states 1980-2009-10. Cuadernos de Economía, 31(57), 41-64.

Stiglitz, J. (1969). Distribution of income and wealth among individuals. Econometrica, 37(3), 382-397.

Tiwari, A., Shahbaz, M., & Islam, F. (2013). Does financial development increase rural-urban income inequality?: Cointegration analysis in the case of Indian economy. International Journal of Social Economics, 40(2), 151-168.

Voitchosky, S. (2005). Does the profile of income inequality matter for economic growth? Distinguishing between the effects of inequality in different parts of the income distribution. Journal of Economic Growth, 10(3), 273-96.

Woo, J. (2011). Growth, income distribution, and fiscal policy volatility. Journal of Development Economics, 96(2), 289-313.

Licencia

Derechos de autor 2014 Cuadernos de Economía

Cuadernos de Economía a través de la División de Bibliotecas de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia promueve y garantiza el acceso abierto de todos sus contenidos. Los artículos publicados por la revista se encuentran disponibles globalmente con acceso abierto y licenciados bajo los términos de Creative Commons Atribución-No_Comercial-Sin_Derivadas 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), lo que implica lo siguiente: