Macroeconomic Policy and Income Inequality

Workshop

September 18-19, 2014

A two-day workshop co-sponsored by DFID and the IMF on “Macroeconomic Policy and Income Inequality” was held in September 2014 at the IMF headquarters. It brought together academics and policy makers from top institutions around the world. Attendees discussed a wide range of issues and their impacts on inequality including financial deepening, commodity prices, trust and networks in insurance markets, transaction costs, structural transformation, and microfinance, among others. The papers were largely in the tradition of using macroeconomic models linked to micro data to examine distributional questions.

Thursday, September 18th

9:00-9:15

Opening Remarks

9:15-10:30

"Commodity Prices Booms: Macroeconomic and Distributional Implications"

Adrian Peralta (IMF) with Marina Mendes Tavares and Irina Telyukova Slides
Discussant: Diego Restuccia (University of Toronto) Slides

10:30-10:45

Coffee break

10:45-12:00

"Identifying Constraints on Financial Inclusion and their Impact on GDP and Inequality: A Structural Framework for Policy"

Era Dabla-Norris and Filiz Unsal (IMF) with Yan Ji, Robert M. Townsend, and D. Filiz Unsal Slides
Discussant: Jorge Alonso Ortiz (ITAM) Slides

12:00-13:15

Lunch

13:15-14:30

"Economic Development and the Organization of Production"

Nicolas Roys (University of Wisconsin-Madison) with Ananth Seshadri Slides
Discussant: Ufuk Akcigit (University of Pennsylvania) Slides

14:30-15:45

"Structural Transformation, Education and Growth"

Alex Monge-Naranjo (Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis) with Pedro Cavalcanti Ferreira, and Luciene Pereira Slides
Discussant: Maurizio Bussolo (World Bank) Slides

15:45-16:15

Coffee Break

16:15-17:30

"The demand for insurance under limited trust: Experimental evidence from Kenya"

Stefan Dercon (University of Oxford and DFID) with Jan Willem Gunning, and Andrew Zeitlinz Slides
Discussant: Ayse Imrohoroglu (University of Southern California) Slides

17:30-18:30

Cocktail

Friday, September 19th

9:15-10:30

"Optimal Development Policies with Financial Frictions"

Oleg Itskhoki(Princeton University) with Benjamin Moll Slides
Discussant: Sangeeta Pratap (Hunter College and Graduate Center) Slides

10:30-10:45

Coffee Break

9:15-10:30

"Land Misallocation and Productivity"

Diego Restuccia (University of Toronto) with Raul Santaeulalia‐Llopis Slides
Discussant: Rodolfo Manuelli (Washington U. in St. Louis) Slides

12:00-13:15

Lunch

13:15-14:30

"The Macroeconomics of Microfinance"

Paco Buera (UCLA and Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) with with Yongseok Shin and Joseph P. Kaboski Slides
Discussant:Lukasz Drozd (University of Pennsylvania) Slides

14:30-15:45

"Distributional Effects of Macroeconomics Policy Choices in Emerging Market Economies"

Boyang Zhang (Cornell University) with Eswar Prasad Slides
Discussant:Edward F. Buffie (Indiana University and IMF)

15:45-16:15

Coffee Break

14:30-15:45

"Doves for the Rich, Hawks for the Poor? Distributional Consequences of Monetary Policy"

Makoto Nakajima (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) with Mattis Gornemann and Keith Kuester Slides
Discussant:Jose Maria da Rocha (University of Vigo) Slides

17:30-17:45

Closing Remarks