The Functional Role of Inequality: Some Lessons from Development

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9709254 Ray A topic of fundamental interest in economics is the cause and effect of inequality in assets and incomes. This project studies the evolution of inequality and its effects on efficiency in the context of two different markets: land and labor. The first part studies the causal links between property rights for land and growth in developing countries. More specifically, the research examines conditions under which land tenure arrangements lead to wealth distributions characterized by widening inequality instead of convergence. The analysis of land tenure is supplemented by examining the market for land sales, which affects the distribution of landholdings over time. The project examines the conditions under which this market operates in a way that results in increased concentration of landholdings. The second part of the project studies models of developing country labor markets in which nutritional status affects work capacity. ??