Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty?

Download or read book Does Corruption Affect Income Inequality and Poverty? written by Mr.Sanjeev Gupta and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1998-05-01 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper demonstrates that high and rising corruption increases income inequality and poverty by reducing economic growth, the progressivity of the tax system, the level and effectiveness of social spending, and the formation of human capital, and by perpetuating an unequal distribution of asset ownership and unequal access to education. These findings hold for countries with different growth experiences, at different stages of development, and using various indices of corruption. An important implication of these results is that policies that reduce corruption will also lower income inequality and poverty.