Inequality, poverty, and growth
Subtitle: cross-country evidence
By: prepared by Garbis Iradian.
Contributors: International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Series: IMF working paper -- WP/05/28
Publisher: International Monetary Fund, Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 39
Subjects: Inequality.; Economic development.; Poverty.; Government spending policy.
Description: This paper examines the empirical relationship between inequality and growth, and analyzes the impacts of growth, inequality, and government spending on poverty reduction. A new panel dataset has been assembled on inequality and poverty that reduces measurement error and ensures comparability across countries and over time. The empirical results in this paper challenge the belief that income inequality has a negative effect on growth and confirm the validity of the Kuznets curve. Credit market imperfections in low- and medium-income countries are identified as the likely reason for the positive link between inequality and growth over the short-to-medium term. In the long term, inequality may have an adverse impact on growth.
Notes: "February 2005."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-39).

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