Systemic Financial Crises and Income Inequality in OECD Countries

Abstract

We offer theory and evidence that supports the view that systemic financial crises impact income inequality negatively in richer countries, where institutions, such as social safety nets, work better than in developing countries. More generally, to our knowledge, our work is the first to provide empirical evidence that supports the view that systemic financial crises may have a causal impact on income inequality and that a driving mechanism may be vulnerable employment. In order to do this, we apply a diff-in-diff approach and provide evidence that the parallel trends assumption is complied with.