Inequality in Latin America: The role of the nature of trade and partners

Teresa María García Muñoz, Juliette Milgram Baleix and Omar Odeh Odeh

No 2019-59, Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and income inequality in 11 Latin American countries over the period 1989-2015. We use a panel dynamic approach to take into account the high persistence of income inequality. The analysis classifies trade flows, exports and imports according to trading partner's economic development and income level. Then, we split trade flows according to different stages of production. The results show that overall trade flows lessen income inequality in Latin America. However, trade has divergent effects depending on the trade partners: trade with similar-income countries exacerbates inequality, while trade with developing countries and higher-income countries reduces income dispersion. The results also emphasise the role of the export channel (in particular in primary commodities) in explaining income inequality in Latin American countries and imports of consumption goods seem to matter more than imports of intermediate and capital goods.

Keywords: trade openness; trade direction; income inequality; Latin America (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E25 F14 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-lam
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2019-59
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206616/1/1681750791.pdf (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:zbw:ifwedp:201959

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().