Revealed (or Imposed) Social Preferences for Equality and Growth

David Kiefer and Shahrukh Rafi Khan ()

Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah from University of Utah, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using the Kuznets' inverted-U-shaped association as a structural constraint, we model the social tradeoff between changing inequality and changing income. Observed outcomes are thought of as attempts to find a constrained political-economic optimum. This model implies estimates of the parameters of a social welfare function. Our results suggest that the world is becoming an anti-egalitarian place. An extension of the model links this finding to religious heritage, exchange rate instability, and, surprisingly, to increased gender equality.

Keywords: Growth; Inequalit; Social Welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O15 O50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2003
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-pke
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Published in Journal of Income Distribution, March 2008, 17(1), pp.21-33.

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uta:papers:2003_01

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