findings:increased income equality through FDI (p < .1)
channels:primarily goes to agriculture which can employ low-skilled labour
direction:-1# -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
significance:1# 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg
- intervention:trade liberalization
institutional:0
structural:1
agency:0
inequality:income
type:0# 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
indicator:1# 0 absolute / 1 relative
measures:Gini coeff
findings:significantly decreased income equality through trade liberalization; equally for political stability, corruption, rule of law increase
channels:higher import than export, creating jobs in other countries
direction:1# -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
significance:2# 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg
- intervention:education
institutional:1
structural:1
agency:0
inequality:income
type:0# 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
indicator:1# 0 absolute / 1 relative
measures:Gini coeff
findings:education significantly decreases income equality in the region
channels:potentially inequal access to education through exclusion (e.g. spatial/gender/financial); differentiated quality of education
direction:1# -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
significance:2# 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg
notes:
annotation:|
A study on the effects of trade liberalization and FDI on income inequality in 38 countries in the Sub-Saharan region.
It finds that increased FDI is negatively correlated with income inequality measured through the Gini coefficient, while trade liberalization is positively correlated with income inequality ---
as are corruption, political stability, rule of law and education, which contradicts a variety of previous studies.
The authors suggest this may be due to the difference in sample and variables used, and the periods under study.
They suggest that FDI may primarily go to the agricultural sector which can employ low-skilled labour and thereby reduce inequalities,
while trade openness in fact creates jobs in other countries through higher import than export rates.
They do not provide clear channels through which education positively correlates with inequality, though some possibilities are an unequal access to education (through excluding factors such as those based on spatial, gender or financial inequalities), as well as a differentiated quality of education.
Limitations of the study are the region-wide level of analysis which may obscure context-dependent mechanisms within the different institutional-structural contexts of the countries and potential hidden unobservables which may bias the results.
