Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/56187 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance No. 676
Publisher: 
Stockholm School of Economics, The Economic Research Institute (EFI), Stockholm
Abstract: 
This paper examines the long-run determinants of the evolution of top in-come shares. Using a newly assembled panel of 16 developed countries over the entire twentieth century, we find that financial development dis-proportionately boosts top incomes. This effect appears to be particularly strong during the early stages of a country's development. Economic growth is strongly pro-rich which is inconsistent with globalized labor markets determining the incomes of elites. Furthermore, international trade is not associated with increases in top incomes on average, but is so in An-glo-Saxon countries. Finally, tax progressivity has a significant negative ef-fect on top income shares whereas government spending has no such clear impact on inequality.
Subjects: 
Top incomes
income inequality
financial development
trade openness
government spending
economic development
JEL: 
D31
F10
G10
N30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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