"The interaction between the dynamics of economic growth and the evolution of economic inequality is an important and challenging problem. Recent advances in macroeconomics of heterogeneous agents have finally made it possible to investigate this question in a systematic manner. This timely book offers an excellent first broad overview in this area. The ideas in the book are so intuitive that they can be taught to advanced undergraduates. The exposition is so clear, simple and yet rigorous that the book is useful in a first-year graduate macro sequence. Its comprehensive coverage makes it an indispensable source of reference for the researcher in the field. A great achievement! I wish I had written this book."--Kiminori Matsuyama, Northwestern University

"Income distribution questions are becoming increasingly important in modern macroeconomic theory, and they will probably become even more so as computational techniques are utilized to move macroeconomics beyond the representative agent paradigm. This book does a good job in summarizing the current state of the literature in an interesting and hands-on way."--Alex Michaelides, London School of Economics

"A well balanced, clearly argued, up-to-date, and informative account of the subject. The arguments that spin off from this book will interest not only macroeconomists but also others in the field."--Frank Cowell, Professor of Economics and Director of Distributional Analysis Research Programme, London School of Economics; author of "The Economics of Poverty and Inequality"

Institutions are a key determinant for growth. I am very happy to have pursued my research at a very good and stimulating institution, namely at the institute for Empirical Research in Economics (lEW). My special thanks go to my thes- supervisor, Josef Zweimueller. With great enthusiasm, he pointed me towards interesting research subjects. It was a very fruitful collaboration, which allowed me to start quickly my dissertation. Josef Falkinger, my co-advisor, was always an excellent discussant - not only in economics - and I profited from his useful com- ments on earlier versions of this dissertation. Daron Acemoglu, Philippe Aghion, Marios Angeletos, Giuseppe Bertola, Oded Galor, Omer Moav, and Gilles Saint- Paul provided very valuable comments and suggestions to topics related to this dissertation. I gratefully acknowledge the support and numerous discussions with my colleagues, especially with Zava Aydemir, Men-Andri Benz, Johannes B- swanger, Markus Knell, Volker Grossmann, Urs Meister, Manuel Oechslin, and Niels Zilkens. Furthermore, my research also profited much from the interplay be- tween teaching and research, as it was a very satisfactory task to guide ambitious students to macroeconomic problems. Finally, I want to thank my parents. Marcel and Rosemarie Foellmi-Kuster, for their great support. As entrepreneurs, they provided me, early on, with a critical view on economic problems and puzzles. Jede Forschungsarbeit profitiert ungemein von einem anregenden Umfeld. Ich hatte das Gliick, am Institut fiir Empirische Wirtschaftsforschung (lEW) solche vi Preface idealen Bedingungen vorzufinden.

This book looks at the distribution of income and wealth and the effects that this has on the macroeconomy, and vice versa. Is a more equal distribution of income beneficial or harmful for macroeconomic growth, and how does the distribution of wealth evolve in a market economy? Taking stock of results and methods developed in the context of the 1990s revival of growth theory, the authors focus on capital accumulation and long-run growth. They show how rigorous, optimization-based technical tools can be applied, beyond the representative-agent framework of analysis, to account for realistic market imperfections and for political-economic interactions. The treatment is thorough, yet accessible to students and nonspecialist economists, and it offers specialist readers a wide-ranging and innovative treatment of an increasingly important research field. The book follows a single analytical thread through a series of different growth models, allowing readers to appreciate their structure and crucial assumptions. This is particularly useful at a time when the literature on income distribution and growth has developed quickly and in several different directions, becoming difficult to overview.