Mark Thoma — Why income redistribution doesn't hurt growth

Thomas Piketty's book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" documents the increase in inequality in recent decades, and it has rekindled an old debate about the effects of income redistribution on economic growth. Until recently, most economists believed there's a trade-off between equity and efficiency and that the redistribution of income would lower economic growth.

Several reasons account for this, such as the economic distortions that taxes imposed to redistribute income and wealth can cause. However, the main reason is that taking income away from the wealthy reduces the incentive to implement innovative ideas. In its most extreme form, where redistribution is used to ensure that everyone has the same income, why bother to work hard, or work at all?

But as the recent paper "Redistribution, Inequality, and Growth" by Jonathan D. Ostry, Andrew Berg, and Charalambos G. Tsangarides of the International Monetary Fund explains, there are also reasons to believe the redistribution of income can enhance economic growth in some cases....

Economics does not tell us what the distribution of income ought to be. That involves a value judgment, and individuals will differ on what is fair and equitable. But economics can tell us about the consequences of redistribution, and the best evidence we have suggests that modest redistribution, if anything, enhances growth.

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Why income redistribution doesn't hurt growth
Mark Thoma | Professor of Economics, University of Oregon