Olinto, PedroDeininger, Klaus2014-08-282014-08-282000-06https://hdl.handle.net/10986/19830With the recent resurgence of interest in equity, inequality, and growth, the possibility of a negative relationship between inequality and economic growth, has received renewed interest in the literature. Faced with the prospect that high levels of inequality may persist, and give rise to poverty traps, policymakers are paying more attention to the distributional implications of macroeconomic policies. Because high levels of inequality may hurt overall growth, policymakers are exploring measures to promote growth and equity at the same time. How the consequences of inequality are analyzed, along with the possible cures, depends partly on how inequality is measured. The authors use assets (land) rather than income - and a GMM estimator - to examine the robustness of the relationship between inequality and growth that has been observed in the cross-sectional literature, but has been drawn into question by recent studies using panel techniques. They find evidence that asset inequality - but not income inequality - has a relatively large negative impact on growth. They also find that a highly unequal distribution of assets reduces the effectiveness of educational interventions. This means that policymakers should be more concerned about households' access to assets, and to the opportunities associated with them, than about the distribution of income. Long-term growth might be improved by measures to prevent large jumps in asset inequality - possibly irreversible asset loss because of exogenous shocks - and by policies to facilitate asset accumulation by the poor.en-USCC BY 3.0 IGOAGGREGATE GROWTHAGRICULTUREANNUAL GROWTHANNUAL GROWTH RATEANTI-EXPORT BIASASSET DISTRIBUTIONASSET INEQUALITYASSETSCAPITAL ACCUMULATIONCAPITAL MARKETCAPITAL MARKETSCOLLEGE EDUCATIONCONDITIONAL CONVERGENCECONSUMPTION GROWTHCOUNTRY CHARACTERISTICSCOUNTRY LEVELCOUNTRY REGRESSIONSCOUNTRY SPECIFICCREDIT CONSTRAINTSCREDIT MARKETCREDIT MARKET IMPERFECTIONSCREDIT RATIONINGCRIMECRISESCROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISONSCROSS-COUNTRY PERSPECTIVEDATA ISSUESDATA SETDEREGULATIONDESCRIPTIVE STATISTICSDEVELOPED COUNTRIESDEVELOPED ECONOMIESDEVELOPING COUNTRIESDEVELOPING COUNTRYDEVELOPING COUNTRY CONTEXTDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDIFFERENTIAL IMPACTDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTHDISTRIBUTIONAL DATADISTRIBUTIONAL IMPLICATIONSDYNAMIC PANELECONOMETRIC ESTIMATESECONOMIC EFFICIENCYECONOMIC EXCHANGEECONOMIC GROWTHECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIESECONOMIC OUTCOMESECONOMIC POLICYECONOMIC PROCESSEDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENTEMPIRICAL ANALYSISEMPIRICAL EVIDENCEEMPIRICAL LITERATUREEMPIRICAL REGULARITYEMPIRICAL RELATIONSHIPEMPIRICAL STUDIESEMPIRICAL SUPPORTEQUAL DISTRIBUTIONEQUILIBRIUMERROR TERMETHNIC HOMOGENEITYEXOGENOUS SHOCKSEXPENDITURESEXPLANATORY VARIABLESEXTERNALITYFACTOR ENDOWMENTSFINANCIAL MARKETSFIXED EFFECTSFIXED EFFECTS ESTIMATORGDPGDP PER CAPITAGINI COEFFICIENTGINI INDEXGROWTH EQUATIONGROWTH EQUATIONSGROWTH IMPACTGROWTH LITERATUREGROWTH MODELSGROWTH RATESGROWTH REGRESSIONSGROWTH SPELLSHIGH CORRELATIONHIGH INEQUALITYHOUSEHOLD SURVEYSHUMAN CAPITALIMPACT OF INEQUALITYIMPERFECT INFORMATIONINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCOME DISTRIBUTION DATAINCOME INEQUALITYINCOME LEVELSINCOME REDISTRIBUTIONINCOMPLETE MARKETSINDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIESINEQUALITYINEQUALITY INDICATORSINEQUALITY MEASURESINEQUALITY-GROWTH RELATIONSHIPINSTITUTIONAL QUALITYINSURANCEINTERGENERATIONAL MOBILITYLAND INEQUALITYLAND OWNERSHIPLINK BETWEEN INEQUALITY AND GROWTHLONG-TERM GROWTHMACROECONOMIC POLICIESMARKET IMPERFECTIONSMEDIAN VOTERMINIMUM LEVELMULTIPLE EQUILIBRIANATIONAL ACCOUNTSNATIONAL LEVELNEGATIVE EFFECTNEGATIVE IMPACTNEGATIVE RELATIONSHIPNEGATIVE SIGNNET EFFECTPER CAPITA INCOMEPOINT ESTIMATEPOLICY DISCUSSIONPOLICY IMPLICATIONSPOLICY LEVELPOLICY MAKERSPOLICY MEASURESPOLICY RESEARCHPOLITICAL ECONOMYPOLITICAL ECONOMY MODELSPOOR COUNTRIESPOSITIVE COEFFICIENTPOSITIVE EFFECTPOVERTY TRAPSPRIVATE INFORMATIONPROMOTING GROWTHPROPERTY RIGHTSPUBLIC GOODPUBLIC GOODSPUBLIC SECTORRANDOM EFFECTSREAL GDPREDISTRIBUTIVE MEASURESREDUCED FORM EQUATIONREGULATORY FRAMEWORKRESOURCE USERURAL AREASSAFETY NETSSCARCITY VALUESECONDARY ENROLLMENTSECURE PROPERTY RIGHTSSERIAL CORRELATIONSIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCESSIGNIFICANT IMPACTSIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPSOCIAL CAPITALSTANDARD DEVIATIONTAX REVENUETAXATIONTHEORETICAL MODELSUNEQUAL DISTRIBUTIONVULNERABLE GROUPSWAGESWEALTHWEALTH DISTRIBUTION10.1596/1813-9450-2375