Publications

Average incomes of the poorest fifth of society rise proportionately with average incomes. This is a consequence of the strong empirical regularity that the share of income accruing to the bottom quintile does not vary systematically with average income. This paper documents this empirical regularity in a large sample of 92 countries spanning the past four decades, and show that it holds across regions, time periods, income levels, and growth rates; and asks whether the factors that explain cross-country differences in growth rates of average incomes have differential effects on the poorest fifth of society.