Asset distribution, inequality, and growth

With 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.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Poverty Impact Evaluation,Services&Transfers to Poor,Inequality,Governance Indicators,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth

Informal credit markets, interlinkage and migration

This paper develops a model of interlinkage in the credit market and labor market. A credit-cum-labor contract provides the necessary funds to undertake an investment in migration, given the absence of sufficient collateral. The optimal interlinked contract eliminates the scope for strategic default. The result shows that the very presence of inequality is a necessary condition for migration to take place. This could explain the apparent paradox of why poor households in villages where asset distribution is very skewed are more likely to migrate than households in poorer villages with less unequal asset distribution

Asset Portfolios in Africa: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

savings, asset portfolios, household wealth, asset distribution, poverty, inequality, Ethiopia

Beneficial "firm runs"

The author argues that runs, which are generally considered undesirable, also have a beneficial effect--improving lenders' monitoring incentives. Lenders' ability to run on the firm helps control its moral hazard problem, while the first-come, first-served aspect of asset distribution keeps lenders from wanting to free ride on the monitoring efforts of others.Bankruptcy ; Bank loans

Adjustment Capacity of Korean Farm Household

Structural adjustment is defined as the farm household’s behavior of changing its existing farm asset distribution toward more specialized or diversified directions. Farm households are classified into agricultural or non-agricultural based ones. Estimated expected income through switching regression model reveals that higher revenue is expected when adjustment paths toward more specialization and more non-agricultural based activities are chosen.trade policy reform, structural adjustment, expected income, switching regression model, farm household, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q100, Q180,

Land Inequality and Economic Growth: A Dynamic Panel Data Approach

The growing body of literature devoted to study the impact of inequality on economic growth have centred its attention in the income distribution effect, even though the theoretical relationships are more related to assets distributions than to income distribution. While some recent studies have tried to overcome this limitation by introducing indicators of this type, they found a new constraint when dealing only with time-invariant measurements for this explanatory variable. This article provides a theoretical discussion and some novel empirical tests to better understand the relationships between assets distribution and economic growth. We assembled a new panel database that includes observations for more than 30 countries over the last three decades. The data include a time-varying variable for changes in the Land Gini index over this period that enables to overcome the limitations of previous studies that only included time-invariant measurement. A system GMM estimator is used to generate truly unbiased and consistent regression estimates. We explore some of the likely channels through which asset distribution and economic growth may be linked, paying particular attention to the role of secure property rights and the relations between land ownership and education. We find robust and significant negative signs for land inequality in the growth regressions, indicating that changes in asset distribution are an important factor for economic development.land inequality, economic growth, investments, system GMM estimation, International Development, Land Economics/Use, Q15, C23, I3,

Foundation Giving in California: A Snapshot of Overall Giving, Asset Distribution and Regional Disparities Among Private and Community Foundations

Provides details on the composition, concentration, and distribution of private and community foundation funding in California, and regional snapshots of philanthropic capacity and activity for 2003