Income inequality and structures of international trade

Abstract

The effects of trade openness on within-country income inequality in developing countries are found to be inconclusive in existing literature. This study proposes a “threshold effect” to address this issue. We argue that when exports benefit a large portion of population, it is more likely to decrease income inequality within a country; otherwise, increasing exports will likely increase the income inequality. Using a data-set of 55 developing countries from 1981 to 2005, we find that if the employment share of manufacturing industry is above (below) a threshold, the increase in the share of manufactures exports reduces (increases) the within-country income inequality.