The Effects of Sectoral Trade Composition on Inequality: Evidence from Emerging Economies
Mohammad Monirul Islam,
Zhaohua Li and
Farha Fatema
Asian Journal of Empirical Research, 2017, vol. 7, issue 8, 202-224
Abstract:
This study identifies the effect of sectoral composition of trade on inequality in the emerging economies. We separate export and import into four broad sectors such as agriculture; labor-intensive manufacturing; capital-intensive manufacturing and service, and measure revealed comparative advantage (RCA) of each sector. We then identify the effect of growing export; import; and comparative advantage of these sectors on inequality. The study applies dynamic panel data model to a panel dataset of 31 emerging economies over 1994-2014. We take both relative and absolute measures of inequality to solve the debate regarding measurement issues of inequality. The study results suggest that trade in different sectors have differential effect on inequality measured by Gini and ratio of average income of highest and lowest quintiles, but it significantly increases income differences between the two extreme quintiles of income group. Technology has a mixed effect on relative inequality, but it substantially raises absolute income differences between the highest and lowest quintiles.
Keywords: Sectoral trade composition; Inequality; emerging economies; revealed comparative advantage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://archive.aessweb.com/index.php/5004/article/view/3988/6275 (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:asi:ajoerj:v:7:y:2017:i:8:p:202-224:id:3988
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Asian Journal of Empirical Research from Asian Economic and Social Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Robert Allen ().