Finance, inequality, and poverty
Subtitle: cross-country evidence
By: Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgu-Kunt, Ross Levine.
Contributors: Demirgüç-Kunt, Aslı, 1961-; Levine, Ross.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 10979; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 10979.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Finance -- Developing countries.; Income distribution -- Developing countries.; Poverty -- Developing countries.
Description: "While substantial research finds that financial development boosts overall economic growth, we study whether financial development disproportionately raises the incomes of the poor and alleviates poverty.  Using a broad cross-country sample, we distinguish among competing theoretical predictions about the impact of financial development on changes in income distribution and poverty alleviation.  We find that financial development reduces income inequality by disproportionately boosting the incomes of the poor.  Countries with better-developed financial intermediaries experience faster declines in measures of both poverty and income inequality.  These results are robust to controlling for other country characteristics and potential reverse causality"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
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