As first pointed out by Voitchovsky (2005), most of the mechanisms predicting a negative effect of income inequality on growth emphasize the role of income disparities at the bottom end of the distribution. Further, only 18 OECD countries are included in this dataset (see Atkinson et al., As a result, it is not possible to extend the analysis to consider the role of top inequality based, for example, on top 1 per cent pre-income shares.