Wealth inequality and financial development: Revisiting the symmetry breaking mechanism
Matsuyama (Econometrica 72(3):853–884, 2004) shows that financial integration may lead to income polarization among inherently identical countries, if these countries are financially underdeveloped, a result he calls “symmetry breaking.” By introducing the minimum investment requirement and within-c...
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| Format: | text |
| Language: | English |
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Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
2017
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| Online Access: | https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2254 |
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| Institution: | Singapore Management University |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Matsuyama (Econometrica 72(3):853–884, 2004) shows that financial integration may lead to income polarization among inherently identical countries, if these countries are financially underdeveloped, a result he calls “symmetry breaking.” By introducing the minimum investment requirement and within-country wealth inequality into Matsuyama’s framework, I show that wealth inequality is as important as financial development in determining the possibility of symmetry breaking. I then address three practical issues in this model, e.g., the conditions of financial integration, the domestic financial crisis and capital controls, and the world interest rate changes and income volatility. |
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