This work brings together two distinct pieces of evidence concerning, at the macro level, international distributions of incomes and their dynamics, and, at the micro level, the size distributions of firms and the properties of their growth rates. First, our empirical analysis provides a new...

It is a widespread view that derivatives played a crucial role during the recent financial and economic crisis. This opinion manifested in headlines such as “Why Derivatives Caused Financial Crisis” and derivatives have been termed “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”. However, the...