IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/seejeb/v17y2022i2p154-171n12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Digitalization Widen Income Inequality? A Comparative Assessment for Advanced and Developing Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Nguyen Van Bon

    (PhD, Lecturer, Faculty of Finance – Banking, University of Finance – Marketing (UFM), 778 Nguyen Kiem St., Ward 4, Phu Nhuan Disrict, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

Abstract

The paper raises two questions: (1) Does digitalization contribute to wealth and income inequality? (2) Does it affect inequality differently between advanced and developing economies? For the answers, the paper investigates the impact of digitalization on inequality for a balanced panel dataset of advanced economies and a balanced panel dataset of developing economies from 2002 through 2020. It applies the system-GMM and PMG estimators for estimation and robustness check. Some exciting results it provides. First, digitalization narrows inequality in developed economies and widens in developing economies. Second, the economic growth – income inequality relationship is U-shaped as real GDP per capita increases from low (developing economies) to high (advanced economies). Third, unemployment enhances inequality in two groups. The results note some necessary implications to develop digital technology and reduce income inequality in these economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Nguyen Van Bon, 2022. "Does Digitalization Widen Income Inequality? A Comparative Assessment for Advanced and Developing Economies," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 17(2), pages 154-171, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:seejeb:v:17:y:2022:i:2:p:154-171:n:12
    DOI: 10.2478/jeb-2022-0021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/jeb-2022-0021
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/jeb-2022-0021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    2. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    3. Aurora A. C. Teixeira & Ana Sofia Loureiro, 2019. "FDI, income inequality and poverty: a time series analysis of Portugal, 1973–2016," Portuguese Economic Journal, Springer;Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao, vol. 18(3), pages 203-249, October.
    4. Canh, Nguyen Phuc & Schinckus, Christophe & Thanh, Su Dinh & Hui Ling, Felicia Chong, 2020. "Effects of the internet, mobile, and land phones on income inequality and The Kuznets curve: Cross country analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10).
    5. Mark Edem Kunawotor & Godfred Alufar Bokpin & Charles Barnor, 2020. "Drivers of income inequality in Africa: Does institutional quality matter?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 718-729, December.
    6. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Newey, Whitney & Rosen, Harvey S, 1988. "Estimating Vector Autoregressions with Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1371-1395, November.
    7. Law, Siong Hook & Naseem, N.A.M. & Lau, Wei Theng & Trinugroho, Irwan, 2020. "Can innovation improve income inequality? Evidence from panel data," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 44(4).
    8. Dierk Herzer & Philipp Hühne & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2014. "FDI and Income Inequality—Evidence from Latin American Economies," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 778-793, November.
    9. Kami Richmond & Russell E. Triplett, 2018. "ICT and income inequality: a cross-national perspective," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 195-214, March.
    10. Facundo Alvaredo & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez & Lucas Chancel & Gabriel Zucman, 2018. "World Inequality Report 2018," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-01885458, HAL.
    11. Kosta Josifidis & Novica Supić & Emilija Beker Pucar, 2017. "Institutional Quality and Income Inequality in the Advanced Countries," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 64(2), pages 169-188, March.
    12. Dierk Herzer & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2013. "Inward and outward FDI and income inequality: evidence from Europe," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 149(2), pages 395-422, June.
    13. Li, Shaomin & Filer, Larry, 2007. "The effects of the governance environment on the choice of investment mode and the strategic implications," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 80-98, March.
    14. Bertrand Blancheton & Dina Chhorn, 2021. "Government Intervention, Institutional Quality, and Income Inequality: Evidence from Asia and the Pacific, 1988–2014," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 38(1), pages 176-206, March.
    15. Nicholas Apergis, 2021. "The role of fiscal policy in the link between income inequality and banking crises," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(15), pages 1283-1287, September.
    16. Teresia Kaulihowa & Charles Adjasi, 2018. "FDI and income inequality in Africa," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(2), pages 250-265, April.
    17. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    18. Judson, Ruth A. & Owen, Ann L., 1999. "Estimating dynamic panel data models: a guide for macroeconomists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 9-15, October.
    19. Wu, Jyun-Yi & Hsu, Chih-Chiang, 2012. "Foreign direct investment and income inequality: Does the relationship vary with absorptive capacity?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2183-2189.
    20. Berisha, Edmond & Gupta, Rangan & Meszaros, John, 2020. "The impact of macroeconomic factors on income inequality: Evidence from the BRICS," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 559-567.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ofori, Isaac K. & Dossou, Marcel A.M. & Asongu, Simplice A. & Armah, Mark K., 2023. "Bridging Africa’s income inequality gap: How relevant is China’s outward FDI to Africa?," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    2. Chenghong Xu & Mingming Han & Toyo Amegnonna Marcel Dossou & Festus Victor Bekun, 2021. "Trade openness, FDI, and income inequality: Evidence from sub‐Saharan Africa," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(1), pages 193-203, March.
    3. Scott, K. Rebecca, 2015. "Demand and price uncertainty: Rational habits in international gasoline demand," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 40-49.
    4. Njangang, Henri & Beleck, Alim & Tadadjeu, Sosson & Kamguia, Brice, 2022. "Do ICTs drive wealth inequality? Evidence from a dynamic panel analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(2).
    5. Henri Njangang & Alim Beleck & Sosson Tadadjeu & Brice Kamguia, 2021. "Do ICTs drive wealth inequality? Evidence from a dynamic panel analysis," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 21/057, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Van Bon Nguyen, 2023. "The Relationship between Public Expenditure and Private Investment in Developed and Developing Economies: Policy Implications Based on the Difference," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 244(1), pages 37-55, March.
    7. Gulati, Rachita & Goswami, Anju & Kumar, Sunil, 2019. "What drives credit risk in the Indian banking industry? An empirical investigation," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 42-62.
    8. Borsato, Andrea & Lorentz, André, 2023. "The Kaldor–Verdoorn law at the age of robots and AI," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(10).
    9. Mustapha Sadni Jallab & Monnet Benoît Patrick Gbakou & René Sandretto, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment, Macroeconomic Instability And Economic Growth in MENA Countries," Working Papers 0817, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    10. Mohcine Bakhat & José M. Labeaga & Xavier Labandeira & Xiral Lñpez, 2013. "Economic Crisis and Elasticities of Car Fuels: Evidence for Spain," Working Papers fa15-2013, Economics for Energy.
    11. Vu, K.M., 2017. "Structural change and economic growth: Empirical evidence and policy insights from Asian economies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 64-77.
    12. Ricardo Barradas, 2023. "Why Has Labor Productivity Slowed Down in the Era of Financialization?: Insights from the Post-Keynesians for the European Union Countries," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 390-422, September.
    13. Hertweck, Matthias & Brey, Bjoern, 2017. "The Persistent Effects of Monsoon Rainfall Shocks in India: A Nonlinear VAR Approach," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168256, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Bakhat, Mohcine & Labandeira, Xavier & Labeaga, José M. & López-Otero, Xiral, 2017. "Elasticities of transport fuels at times of economic crisis: An empirical analysis for Spain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(S1), pages 66-80.
    15. Henri Njangang & Alim Beleck & Sosson Tadadjeu & Brice Kamguia, 2021. "Do ICTs drive wealth inequality? Evidence from a dynamic panel analysis," Working Papers 21/057, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    16. Van Bon Nguyen, 2021. "The relationship between FDI inflows and private investment in Vietnam: Does institutional environment matter?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 1151-1162, January.
    17. Lin, Woon Leong & Law, Siong Hook & Ho, Jo Ann & Sambasivan, Murali, 2019. "The causality direction of the corporate social responsibility – Corporate financial performance Nexus: Application of Panel Vector Autoregression approach," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 401-418.
    18. Alfonso Mendoza-Velázquez & Luis Carlos Ortuño-Barba & Luis David Conde-Cortés, 2022. "Corporate governance and firm performance in hybrid model countries," Review of Accounting and Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(1), pages 32-58, February.
    19. Martin Andersson & Hans Lööf, 2009. "Learning‐by‐Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 111(4), pages 893-916, December.
    20. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    digitalization; income inequality; advanced economies; developing economies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:seejeb:v:17:y:2022:i:2:p:154-171:n:12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.