Nor was there any evidence found that effects varied significantly in the short and long term.19 Attempts to identify differences in the effect of inequality by sub-groups of countries (e.g. income per capita, geography or institutions) were uninformative, most likely because of the relatively small country sample. The main, direct, policy tool to reduce market income inequality is via taxes and benefits, which however may also have a negative direct effect on growth. This would happen, for example, if high levels of taxes and transfers imply a waste of resources and generate aggregate inefficiencies (as in Okun’s famous “leaky bucket” analogy).20 If this is the case, the specification should account for the fact that reaching a given level of disposable income inequality would entail a stronger drag on growth in countries featuring higher market inequality.