Persistence of High Income Inequality and Banking Crises: 1980-2010
Quaderni DSE Working Paper N° 885
29 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2013
There are 2 versions of this paper
Persistence of High Income Inequality and Banking Crises: 1980-2010
Date Written: June 3, 2013
Abstract
Differently from Atkinson and Morelli (2011) who detect no clear link between increases in income inequality and systemic banking crises, we show that a large majority of crises occurred between 1982 and 2008 have been preceded by persistently high levels of income inequality. Such association is robust when considering Gini values for incomes after-tax as well as before-tax and transfers. Moreover, we investigate the pattern of income inequality levels before and after a group of banking crises and the relative levels of income inequality in a large sample of OECD countries that did not experience banking crises between 1980 and 2010.
Keywords: income inequality, Gini coefficient, banking crises
JEL Classification: D31, G21
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation