Growth, Income Inequality, and Fiscal Policy: What are the Relevant Tradeoffs?* Cecilia García-Peñalosa GREQAM and CNRS Stephen J. Turnovsky University of Washington Revised version October 2005 Abstract: We develop an endogenous growth model with elastic labor supply, in which agents differ in their initial endowments of physical capital. In this context, the growth rate and the distribution of income are jointly determined. We then examine the distributional impact of different ways of financing an investment subsidy. We find that policies aimed at increasing the growth rate tend to result in a more unequal distribution of pre-tax income, consistent with the positive correlation between income inequality and growth observed in the recent empirical literature. However, there seems to be no conflict between efficiency and equity if inequality is measured in terms of the distribution of welfare. JEL Classification : E62, O17, O40. Keywords: endogenous growth, income inequality, fiscal policy. * García-Peñalosa would like to acknowledge the financial support received from the Institut d’Economie Publique (IDEP), Marseille. Turnovsky’s research was supported in part by the Castor endowment at the University of Washington. The paper has benefited from seminar presentations at the Central European University, Erasmus University, the University of California, Riverside, the University of Kansas, the University of Munich, and the University of Oregon. The constructive comments of two anonymous referees are also gratefully acknowledged.