Publication: Finance, Inequality, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence
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2004-06
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2013-06-19
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Abstract
While substantial research finds that financial development boosts overall economic growth, the authors study whether financial development is pro-poor: Does financial development disproportionately raise the income of the poor? Using a broad cross-country sample, the authors find that the answer is yes: Financial intermediary development reduces income inequality by disproportionately boosting the income of the poor and therefore reduces poverty. This result is robust to controlling for simultaneity bias and reverse causation.
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“Levine, Ross; Beck, Thorsten; Demirguc-Kunt, Asli. 2004. Finance, Inequality, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence. Policy Research Working Paper;No.3338. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14038 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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