The Formation and Distribution of Wealth


Book Description

In this essay, Turgot traces the development of society from its beginning to modern commercial society, the distribution of wealth and taxation leaves the individual and the mechanism of capitalism free of state control. At the foundation of economic science, Turgot became its most profound thinker. He prompted a democratic, just and prosperous society in which the liberty of the individual and the power of the state wereweighed and balanced.







Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth


Book Description

The Fund has recognized in recent years that one cannot separate issues of economic growth and stability on one hand and equality on the other. Indeed, there is a strong case for considering inequality and an inability to sustain economic growth as two sides of the same coin. Central to the Fund’s mandate is providing advice that will enable members’ economies to grow on a sustained basis. But the Fund has rightly been cautious about recommending the use of redistributive policies given that such policies may themselves undercut economic efficiency and the prospects for sustained growth (the so-called “leaky bucket” hypothesis written about by the famous Yale economist Arthur Okun in the 1970s). This SDN follows up the previous SDN on inequality and growth by focusing on the role of redistribution. It finds that, from the perspective of the best available macroeconomic data, there is not a lot of evidence that redistribution has in fact undercut economic growth (except in extreme cases). One should be careful not to assume therefore—as Okun and others have—that there is a big tradeoff between redistribution and growth. The best available macroeconomic data do not support such a conclusion.




Unequal Family Lives


Book Description

This volume explores the causes and consequences of family inequality in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.







Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality


Book Description

This paper analyzes the extent of income inequality from a global perspective, its drivers, and what to do about it. The drivers of inequality vary widely amongst countries, with some common drivers being the skill premium associated with technical change and globalization, weakening protection for labor, and lack of financial inclusion in developing countries. We find that increasing the income share of the poor and the middle class actually increases growth while a rising income share of the top 20 percent results in lower growth—that is, when the rich get richer, benefits do not trickle down. This suggests that policies need to be country specific but should focus on raising the income share of the poor, and ensuring there is no hollowing out of the middle class. To tackle inequality, financial inclusion is imperative in emerging and developing countries while in advanced economies, policies should focus on raising human capital and skills and making tax systems more progressive.




Capital in the Twenty-First Century


Book Description

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.




Input-Output Analysis and the Structure of Income Distribution


Book Description

The purpose of this study is in keeping with the shift in concern over the eco nomic problems of growth to those of income distribution in recent years. Income distribution problems may be analyzed by not only the traditional procedures, but also by some extensions of the input-output technique as I shall demonstrate in this volume of the Lecture Notes. Some fruitful results are obtained by applying the extended input-output technique to income analysis as well as to output analysis. This volume consists of three parts. These parts may be viewed along two veins, with some overlapping unavoidable: (1) Parts One and Two contain extensions of the input-output analysis and (2) Parts One and Three contain studies of the effects of the structure of income distribution on some other economic relationships. First, as an extension of the input-output analysis, we present a synthesis of the Leontief interindustry matrix multiplier and the Keynesian income multiplier in disaggregated form, and introduce a new concept which may be called the "Interrela tional Income Multiplier" as a matrix. It is designed to analyze the interrelation ships among various income-groups in the process of income formation through the medium of industrial production activity. Although this multi-sector multiplier follows from Leontief's interindustry matrix multiplier, it is formulated by the inclusion of the income generation process, which is omitted in the usual input output open model, and by projecting the multiplier process into not only the output determination side, but also into the income-determination side.




Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?


Book Description

This paper demonstrates that high and rising corruption increases income inequality and poverty by reducing economic growth, the progressivity of the tax system, the level and effectiveness of social spending, and the formation of human capital, and by perpetuating an unequal distribution of asset ownership and unequal access to education. These findings hold for countries with different growth experiences, at different stages of development, and using various indices of corruption. An important implication of these results is that policies that reduce corruption will also lower income inequality and poverty.