The Role Of Income Inequality In The Globalisation-Poverty Nexus: Empirical Evidence From Mint Countries

Theoretical claims about the globalisation-income-poverty nexus suggest that globalisation generally reduces poverty, since more integrated economies tend to grow faster and this growth is usually diffused. In view of this, the study empirically analyses the relationship between poverty (absolute and multidimensional) and the various dimensions of globalisation (economic, social and political) in MINT countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) from 1980 to 2018, using a dynamic generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation technique. The key findings are as follows; (i) income inequality influences the nexus between political globalisation and poverty level in Mexico and Indonesia, and also influences the relationship between social globalisation and poverty level in Turkey, (ii) income inequality does not affect the relationship between all three dimensions of globalisation and poverty in Nigeria, and (iii) with the exception of Turkey, income inequality increases the level of poverty in MINT. Thus, as a policy recommendation, it is recommended that governments of MINT countries should embark on activities that would help in achieving equal distribution of income to benefit from the gains of globalisation in terms of poverty reduction.