FINANCIAL SECTOR TRANSFORMATION AND INCOME INEQUALITY– AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between financial sector transformation and income inequality. We construct an econometric model of income concentration for a panel of 16 OECD countries in the years 1995-2009. From our study, financial sector transformation, measured individually by three indicators (GDP share of stock market value traded, bank income and private credit), emerges as a nexus of complex and interconnected phenomena, which are strongly associated with the concentration of income at the top of the distribution.