National Income and Its Distribution
IMF Working Papers, June 11, 2014
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Markus Bruckner, Era Dabla-Norris, Mark Gradstein
- Published: June 11, 2014
- Series: IMF Working Papers
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781498347815.001
Authors and publication date
- By Markus Bruckner, Era Dabla-Norris, Mark Gradstein
- June 11, 2014
Research question and approach
- Primary question: Does the distribution of income within a country become more equal as it grows richer?
- Identification strategy: Uses plausibly exogenous variations in trade-weighted world income and international oil price shocks as instruments for within-country variations in countries real GDP per capita.
- Sample: A large sample of advanced and developing countries.
- Estimation: Results are reported as robust across different time horizons and alternative estimation techniques.
Key findings and statistics
- Main empirical result:
- A one percent increase in real GDP per capita, on average, reduces the Gini coefficient by around 0.08 percentage points.
- Robustness:
- The result is robust across income levels.
- The result is robust across different time horizons.
- The result is robust across alternative estimation techniques.
Policy implications and recommendations
- Education policy:
- Policies that promote equity in education and help individuals continue on to higher levels of education could help reduce income inequality.
Subjects and keywords (as listed on the page)
- Subject: Income distribution, Income inequality, National accounts, National income, Oil prices, Personal income, Prices
- Keywords include: Asia and Pacific, country Fe, GDP p.c., GDP share, growth, Income distribution, income growth, Income inequality, income share, inequality, least squares, ls estimate, National income, Oil prices, Personal income, significance level, Sub-Saharan Africa, WP
Source: IMF Working Papers — "National Income and Its Distribution" by Markus Bruckner, Era Dabla-Norris, and Mark Gradstein, June 11, 2014.