The effects of globalization on income distribution within rich and poor countries are a matter of controversy. While international trade theory in its most abstract formulation implies that increased trade and foreign investment should make income distribution more equal in poor countries and less equal in rich countries, finding these effects has proved elusive. The paper presents another attempt to discern the effects of globalization by using the data from household budget surveys and looking at the impact of openness and direct foreign investment on relative income shares of low and high deciles. We find some evidence that at very low average income level, it is the rich who benefit from openness. As income level rises, that is around the income level of Colombia, Chile or Czech republic, the situation changes and it is the relative income of the poor and the middle class that rises compared to the rich. It seems that openness makes income distribution worse before making it better—or differently that the effect of openness on country’s income distribution depends on country’s initial income level.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series International Trade with number
0303004.
Length: 22 pages Date of creation: 29 Mar 2003 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpit:0303004
Note: Type of Document - pdf; prepared on IBM PC ; to print on PostScript; pages: 22; figures: included/request from author/draw your own Contact details of provider: Web page: http://129.3.20.41
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (EconWPA).
Find related papers by JEL classification: D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration I3 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare and Poverty
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)