Inequality of Opportunity and Economic Growth : A Cross-Country Analysis

Ferreira, Francisco H.G. ; Lakner, Christoph ; Lugo, Maria Ana ; Ozler, Berk

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: CIRCUMSTANCES AT BIRTH;    ECONOMIC GROWTH;    INCOME INEQUALITY;    INEQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY;    METADATA SETS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6915
RP-ID  :  WPS6915

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Income differences arise from manysources. While some kinds of inequality, caused by effortdifferences, might be associated with faster economicgrowth, other kinds, arising from unequal opportunities forinvestment, might be detrimental to economic progress. Thisstudy uses two new metadata sets, consisting of 118household surveys and 134 Demographic and Health Surveys, torevisit the question of whether inequality is associatedwith economic growth and, in particular, to examine whetherinequality of opportunity -- driven by circumstances atbirth -- has a negative effect on subsequent growth. Theresults are suggestive but not robust: while overall incomeinequality is generally negatively associated with growth inthe household survey sample, we find no evidence that thisis due to the component associated with unequalopportunities. In the Demographic and Health Surveys sample,both overall wealth inequality and inequality of opportunityhave a negative effect on growth in some of the preferredspecifications, but the results are not robust to relativelyminor changes. On balance, although the results aresuggestive of a negative association between inequality andgrowth, the data do not permit robust conclusions as towhether inequality of opportunity is bad for growth.