Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/215044 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8042
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We examine how structural reforms relate to income inequality. We employ many indicators of structural reforms and use data for market and net income inequality. The dataset includes up to 135 countries since 1960. The results do not suggest that market-oriented structural reforms were associated with rising income inequality in the full sample. Trade and financial liberalization were positively associated with income inequality in high-income countries. An mportant question is whether structural reforms benefit individual groups. We employ macro and micro data to investigate whether the income of low-income citizens increased to a smaller extent than the income of high-income citizens. The results suggest quite the opposite: market-oriented reforms were positively correlated with income shares of low-income citizens. We also examine citizens' support for structural reforms and show that low-income citizens are less likely to support market-oriented reforms than high-income citizens. It is conceivable that low-income citizens have misperceptions about how they benefit from market-oriented reforms.
Subjects: 
structural reforms
income inequality
economic growth
misperceptions
panel data
microeconomic data
JEL: 
D31
D63
E62
F02
O11
O15
P16
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.