Trade Openness and Within-Country Income Distribution
: A Meta-Regression Analysis

  • Sirage Shifaw

Student thesis: Master typesSpecialised Master in International and Development Economics

Abstract

The within-country income inequality effect from increasing trade openness has long been studied but remains disputed. This paper’s meta-regression analysis of 124 estimated within-country income inequality coefficients from twenty-five developing countries studies finds no overall economically meaningful significant inequality effect after controlling for publication bias. The result remains robust when controlling for 15 other characteristics of the estimates and using mixed-effects multilevel meta-regression to account for within-study variations. One possible explanation is that the effects of trade openness on inequality have been offset by other variables.
Date of Award31 May 2019
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Namur
SupervisorArastou Khatibi (Supervisor) & Marie Seleck (Co-Supervisor)

Keywords

  • trade openness
  • income inequality
  • meta-regression analysis
  • publication bias

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