Similarly, growth in more unequal countries can be much slower than that in countries with low initial levels of inequality (Benabou, 1996). One of the important ways in which inequality has created economic instability is through its impact on the generation of finance-driven business cycles (Galbraith, 2012). Some evidence of this has been seen in the much-debated relationship between inequality and the onset of economic recession. In the years prior to the crisis, the poor (who consume a relatively greater share of their income) had falling shares of national income.