NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH
NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH

Inequality, Growth, and Investment

Robert J. Barro

NBER Working Paper No. 7038*
Issued in March 1999
NBER Program(s):   EFG

An NBER digest for this paper is available.

Evidence from a broad panel of countries shows little overall relation between income inequality and rates of growth and investment. However, for growth, higher inequality tends to retard growth in poor countries and encourage growth in richer places. The Kuznets curve-whereby inequality first increases and later decreases during the process of economic development-emerges as a clear empirical regularity. However does not explain the bulk of variations in inequality across countries or over time.

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