The Impact of Slow Economic Growth on Inequality of Income Distribution with Emphasis on Thomas Piketty's Hypothesis

Expansion, utilization and distribution of potential economic opportunities among people have important impacts on the prosperity of each country. Simon Kuznets was the first researcher who systematically examined the relationship between economic growth and income distribution based on the statistical data. According to Kuznets, income inequality will decrease by economic growth in the long term. Therefore, economists focused on economic growth in order to reduce income inequality. However, the Kuznets hypothesis was faced with a serious challenge by publication of Piketty's “Capital” in the twenty-first century. Since, according to Piketty, not only income inequality has not diminished, but also it has increased unprecedentedly in the advanced stages of economic growth and development. In this regard, the aim of this study is to investigate the Thomas Piketty's hypothesis based on the statistical evidence of Iran by using the ARDL econometric method during the period 1975-2015. The results confirm Thomas Piketty's hypothesis according to statistical evidence of Iran. In addition, the effect of non-oil GDP on income inequality is negative and significant, but the impact of oil revenues is positive and significant. War has also led to increased income inequality.