Martin Wolf: A more equal society will not hinder growth: “Over the past half century, notes the IMF…
inequality has been rising in high-income countries and falling in developing countries… the difference between market and post-intervention inequality in high-income economies is smaller than elsewhere…. Inequality reduces growth. The direct impact of redistribution is negligibly negative. But the indirect effect, via reduced inequality, is beneficial to growth…. Increasing already very high levels of redistribution will harm growth. Yet, below the policy extreme, further redistribution does not harm growth…. Not only does inequality damage growth, but efforts to remedy it are, on the whole, not harmful. These are just statistical relationships derived from data that cover a large number of heterogeneous countries. Nonetheless, the findings suggest that trade-offs between redistribution and growth need not be a big worry…”