Inequality in Latin America: the role of the nature of trade and partners

This paper investigates the relationship between trade openness and income inequality in 11 Latin American countries over the period 1989–2015. The authors use a Panel dynamic approach to take into account the high persistence of income inequality. The analysis classifies trade flows, exports and imports according to trading partner’s income level. Then, the authors split trade flows according to different stages of production. The results show that Overall trade flows do not statistically affect income inequality in Latin America. However, trade has divergent effects depending on the trade partners: trade with similar- and lower-income countries exacerbates inequality, while trade with higher-income countries reduces income dispersion. The results also emphasise the role of the export channel (in particular in primary commodities) in explaining income inequality in Latin American countries and imports of consumption goods seem to matter more than imports of intermediate and capital goods.本文考察了1989-2015年间11个拉丁美洲国家的贸易开放度与收入不平等之间的关联。作者采用动态面板方法，以考量收入不平等的高度持续性特征。本研究依据贸易伙伴的收入水平对贸易流量、出口与进口进行分类，随后又依据生产的不同阶段对贸易流量进行拆分。研究结果显示，总体贸易流量在统计学意义上未对拉丁美洲国家的收入不平等产生显著影响。但贸易的影响因贸易伙伴而异：与收入水平相近及低收入国家开展的贸易会加剧收入不平等，而与高收入国家的贸易则会缩小收入离散程度。此外，研究结果还强调了出口渠道（尤其是初级商品出口）在解释拉丁美洲国家收入不平等问题中的作用，并且消费品进口对收入不平等的影响似乎要大于中间品与资本品进口。