Do structural reforms that aim to boost potential output also change the distribution of income? We shed light on this question by looking at the broad patterns in the cross‐country data covering advanced, emerging‐market, and low‐income countries. Our main finding is that there is indeed evidence of a growth‐equity trade‐off for some important reforms. Financial and capital account liberalization seem to increase both growth and inequality, as do some measures of liberalization of current account transactions. Reforms aimed at strengthening the impartiality of and adherence to the legal system seem to entail no growth‐equity trade‐off—such reforms are good for growth and do not worsen inequality. The results for our index of network reforms as well as our measure of the decentralization of collective labor bargaining are the weakest and least robust, potentially due to data limitations. We also ask: If some structural reforms worsen inequality, to what degree does this offset the growth gains from the reforms themselves? While higher inequality does dampen the growth benefits, the net effect on growth remains positive for most reform indicators.

中文翻译：

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结构改革中的增长与公平之间的权衡

旨在增加潜在产出的结构性改革是否也改变了收入分配？通过研究涵盖发达，新兴市场和低收入国家的跨国数据的广泛模式，我们阐明了这个问题。我们的主要发现是，确实有证据表明一些重要的改革会在增长与公平之间取得平衡。金融和资本账户自由化似乎会增加增长和不平等，经常账户交易自由化的一些措施也是如此。旨在加强法律制度的公正性和遵守性的改革似乎不需要在增长与公平之间进行权衡—这种改革有利于增长，并且不会加剧不平等现象。我们的网络改革指数以及我们对集体劳资谈判的权力下放的衡量结果是最薄弱，最不可靠的，这可能是由于数据限制所致。我们还问：如果某些结构性改革加剧了不平等，这在多大程度上抵消了改革本身带来的增长收益？尽管较高的不平等确实削弱了增长带来的好处，但对大多数改革指标而言，对增长的净影响仍然是积极的。