Inequality, finance and growth.

详细信息   

• 作者：Carvallo Valencia ; Oscar Alfonso.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2001
• 导师：Rousseau, Peter Laurence
• 毕业院校：Vanderbilt University
• 专业：Economics, General.;Economics, Finance.;Economics, Theory.
• ISBN：0493143785
• CBH：3005296
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：3584323
• Pages：102

文摘

The purpose of the dissertation is to analyze both theoretically and empirically the effect of wealth and income inequality on growth in the presence of imperfect capital markets. Two groups of factors have been pointed out as crucial for economic development. On one hand, the relationship between financial development and growth has been studied in the context of asymmetric information models. A significant positive correlation has been found between financial development and growth. On the other hand, there is a discussion regarding the channels through which inequality is related to growth.;The model presented in Chapter II gives rise to two possible equilibrium outcomes. An increase in inequality can generate lower equilibrium interest rates and therefore a higher growth rate if monitoring costs are small. In the second possible outcome, an increase in inequality implies high interest rates and lower growth, when monitoring costs are high. This way, monitoring costs and the efficiency of the financial system to reduce them arise as a crucial factor in explaining this diversity of outcomes. I then test these hypotheses empirically using a new database on income inequality. This new database is an attempt to overcome to the maximum extent possible the data deficiencies of previous studies.;The empirical results obtained are consistent with our primary hypothesis: countries with poorly developed financial systems present a strong negative correlation between inequality and growth. However, for countries with highly developed financial systems, more inequality is accompanied with more growth. In countries with lower financial development and more financial constraints, agents are unable to accumulate the financial wealth necessary for investment in human and non-human capital; and therefore, more inequality leads to lower growth. In countries with less financial constraints more inequality allows individuals to reach thresholds of investment, facilitating growth.