Income Inequality and Economic Growth

Abstract

This work tries to investigate the relationship between the distribution of wealth and economic growth. The analysis starts from a review of the most impor- tant contributions of the wide literature on the topic, with the aim of presenting them under a common theoretical framework. The results, in line with some re- cent literature, show that, both on the theoretical and empirical point of view, under some initial conditions, an increase in inequality has a positive effect on subsequent growth; this findings are also confirmed by an empirical analysis of the case of United States.