THE IMPACT OF TRADE OPENNESS ON INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE FORMER CENTRALLY PLANNED MIDDLE–INCOME ECONOMIES

Abstract

This study investigates the association between trade openness and income inequality in the former centrally planned middle–income economies over the period 1994–2019. Apart from the full sample, the EU member or candidate middle–income Balkan economies, and the middle–income CIS countries subsamples were used in estimations as benchmark. Foreign direct investment, inflation, government expenditures and gross fixed capital formation control variables are incorporated into the PMG–ARDL model used in the study. Although some individual country or a few panel studies in the literature have investigated the relationship between trade openness and income inequality, to the best of our knowledge, none have examined these issues focusing on the middle–income post-communist economies and its subgroups particularly. The PMG estimation results for the sample including the middle–income Balkan economies reveal that within 1% increase of trade openness, income inequality worsens by 0.27. We suggest these countries to strengthen their income redistribution strategies while pursuing policies that promote integration into the global market.