IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_1827.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Inequality and the US Import Demand Function

Author

Listed:
  • Margarita Katsimi
  • Thomas Moutos

Abstract

In this paper we build a model of trade in vertically differentiated products and find that income inequality can affect the demand for imports even in the presence of homothetic preferences. The empirical importance of changes in inequality on the demand for imports is then assessed by examining US data for the 1948-1996 period. Using the Johansen (1988) procedure we find that there is no evidence of a long run relationship of a standard imports equation (one including imports, income, and relative prices). However, once we include a measure of inequality in our VAR specification we find not only evidence for the existence of a cointegrating equation in imports, income, relative prices and inequality, but that the evolution of inequality has a large and positive influence on the demand for imports in the US. Moreover we find that our results are robust to alternative methods of estimating cointegration equations.

Suggested Citation

  • Margarita Katsimi & Thomas Moutos, 2006. "Inequality and the US Import Demand Function," CESifo Working Paper Series 1827, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1827
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp1827.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rose, Andrew K. & Yellen, Janet L., 1989. "Is there a J-curve?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 53-68, July.
    2. Devashish Mitra & Vitor Trindade, 2005. "Inequality and trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(4), pages 1253-1271, November.
    3. Dow, James & da Costa Werlang, Sergio Ribeiro, 1992. "Homothetic preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 389-394.
    4. Devashish Mitra, 2016. "Endogenous political organization and the value of trade agreements," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Political Economy of Trade Policy Theory, Evidence and Applications, chapter 2, pages 23-35, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Candelon, Bertrand & Lutkepohl, Helmut, 2001. "On the reliability of Chow-type tests for parameter constancy in multivariate dynamic models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 155-160, November.
    6. Pesaran, M.H. & Shin, Y., 1995. "An Autoregressive Distributed Lag Modelling Approach to Cointegration Analysis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 9514, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Santos-Paulino, Amelia U., 2002. "The Effects of Trade Liberalization on Imports in Selected Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 959-974, June.
    8. Nasri Harb, 2005. "Import demand in heterogeneous panel setting," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(20), pages 2407-2415.
    9. Deininger, Klaus & Squire, Lyn, 1996. "A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(3), pages 565-591, September.
    10. Jim Malley & Thomas Moutos, 2002. "Vertical product differentiation and the import demand function: theory and evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 257-281, May.
    11. Peter C. B. Phillips & Mico Loretan, 1991. "Estimating Long-run Economic Equilibria," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(3), pages 407-436.
    12. Braun, Denny, 1988. "Multiple Measurements of U.S. Income Inequality," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(3), pages 398-405, August.
    13. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
    14. Kinal, T & Lahiri, K, 1993. "On the Estimation of Simultaneous-Equations Error-Components Models with an Application to a Model of Developing Country Foreign Trade," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(1), pages 81-92, Jan.-Marc.
    15. Morris Goldstein & Mohsin S. Khan, 2017. "Income and Price Effects in Foreign Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: TRADE CURRENCIES AND FINANCE, chapter 1, pages 3-81, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Bruce E. Hansen, 2000. "Sample Splitting and Threshold Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(3), pages 575-604, May.
    17. Helge Berger & Thomas Moutos (ed.), 2004. "Managing European Union Enlargement," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262025612, April.
    18. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    19. James R. Markusen, 2021. "Explaining the Volume of Trade: An Eclectic Approach," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 9, pages 177-186, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Sawyer, W. Charles & Sprinkle, Richard L., 1997. "The Demand for Imports and Exports in Japan: A Survey," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 247-259, June.
    21. Menzie D. Chinn, 2005. "Doomed to Deficits? Aggregate U.S. Trade Flows Re-Examined," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(3), pages 460-485, October.
    22. Francois, Joseph F & Kaplan, Seth, 1996. "Aggregate Demand Shifts, Income Distribution, and the Linder Hypothesis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 244-250, May.
    23. Paul Krugman, 1995. "Growing World Trade: Causes and Consequences," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 327-377.
    24. Inder, Brett, 1993. "Estimating long-run relationships in economics : A comparison of different approaches," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 57(1-3), pages 53-68.
    25. Trefler, Daniel, 1995. "The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1029-1046, December.
    26. Ekaterini Panopoulou & Nikitas Pittis, 2004. "A comparison of autoregressive distributed lag and dynamic OLS cointegration estimators in the case of a serially correlated cointegration error," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 7(2), pages 585-617, December.
    27. Antonis Adam & Margarita Katsimi & Thomas Moutos, 2012. "Inequality and the import demand function," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 675-701, October.
    28. Peter Hooper & Karen H. Johnson & Jaime R. Marquez, 1998. "Trade elasticities for G-7 countries," International Finance Discussion Papers 609, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    29. Peter C.B. Phillips & Bruce E. Hansen, 1988. "Statistical Inference in Instrumental Variables," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 869R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Apr 1989.
    30. Krugman, Paul, 1989. "Differences in income elasticities and trends in real exchange rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 1031-1046, May.
    31. Antonis Adam & Thomas Moutos, 2002. "The Political Economy of EU Enlargement: Or, Why Japan is not a Candidate Country?," CESifo Working Paper Series 704, CESifo.
    32. Boyd, Derick & Caporale, Gugielmo Maria & Smith, Ron, 2001. "Real Exchange Rate Effects on the Balance of Trade: Cointegration and the Marshall-Lerner Condition," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(3), pages 187-200, July.
    33. Phillips, P C B, 1991. "Optimal Inference in Cointegrated Systems," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(2), pages 283-306, March.
    34. Ulrich R. Kohli, 1982. "Relative Price Effects and the Demand for Imports," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 15(2), pages 205-219, May.
    35. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    36. Grossman, Gene M, 1982. "Import Competition from Developed and Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 64(2), pages 271-281, May.
    37. Rose, Andrew K., 1991. "The role of exchange rates in a popular model of international trade : Does the 'Marshall-Lerner' condition hold?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3-4), pages 301-316, May.
    38. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    39. Khan, Mohsin S & Knight, Malcolm D, 1988. "Import Compression and Export Performance in Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(2), pages 315-321, May.
    40. Richard B. Freeman, 1995. "Are Your Wages Set in Beijing?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(3), pages 15-32, Summer.
    41. Pedro Conceicao & James K. Galbraith, 1998. "Constructing Long and Dense Time-Series of Inequality Using the Theil Index," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_259, Levy Economics Institute.
    42. Bowen, Harry P & Leamer, Edward E & Sveikauskas, Leo, 1987. "Multicountry, Multifactor Tests of the Factor Abundance Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 791-809, December.
    43. Hunter, Linda, 1991. "The contribution of nonhomothetic preferences to trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3-4), pages 345-358, May.
    44. Johansen, Soren, 1991. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Cointegration Vectors in Gaussian Vector Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1551-1580, November.
    45. Jaime Marquez, 2000. "The Puzzling Income Elasticity of US Imports," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 1128, Econometric Society.
    46. Gonzalo, Jesus, 1994. "Five alternative methods of estimating long-run equilibrium relationships," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1-2), pages 203-233.
    47. Caporale, Guglielmo Maria & Panopoulou, Ekaterini & Pittis, Nikitas, 2005. "The Feldstein-Horioka puzzle revisited: A Monte Carlo study," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1143-1149, November.
    48. Flam, Harry & Helpman, Elhanan, 1987. "Vertical Product Differentiation and North-South Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 810-822, December.
    49. Johansen, Soren, 1988. "Statistical analysis of cointegration vectors," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 12(2-3), pages 231-254.
    50. Margarita Katsimi & Thomas Moutos, 2005. "Inequality and Relative Reliance on Tariffs: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 1457, CESifo.
    51. Houthakker, Hendrik S & Magee, Stephen P, 1969. "Income and Price Elasticities in World Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(2), pages 111-125, May.
    52. repec:bla:revinw:v:23:y:1977:i:4:p:405-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Makram El‐Shagi & William C. Sawyer & Kiril Tochkov, 2022. "The income elasticity of import demand: A meta‐survey," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 18-41, February.
    2. Gu, Xinhua & Tam, Pui Sun & Lei, Chun Kwok, 2021. "The effects of inequality in the 1997–98 Asian crisis and the 2008–09 global tsunami: The case of five Asian economies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Antonis Adam & Margarita Katsimi & Thomas Moutos, 2012. "Inequality and the import demand function," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(4), pages 675-701, October.
    4. Antonis Adam & Thomas Moutos, 2012. "Capital Importers Pay More for their Imports," CESifo Working Paper Series 3723, CESifo.
    5. Kammas, Pantelis & Litina, Anastasia & Palivos, Theodore, 2013. "The Quality of Public Education in Unequal Societies: The Role of Tax Institutions," MPRA Paper 52193, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2020. "Democratisation and tax structure in the presence of home production: Evidence from the Kingdom of Greece," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 219-236.
    7. Ioanna Konstantakopoulou, 2020. "Further Evidence on Import Demand Function and Income Inequality," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-12, October.
    8. Antonis Adam & Panos Hatzipanayotou & Thomas Moutos, 2015. "Labour Market Regulation, Fiscal Consolidation, and the Success of Current Account Adjustments," DEOS Working Papers 1517, Athens University of Economics and Business.
    9. Xinhua Gu & ChunKwok Lei & Li Sheng & Qingbin Zhao, 2021. "Global current account imbalances and the link between income and consumption inequality," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 557-572, August.
    10. Zuhal Ozbay Das, 2021. "Inequality and the Import Demand in Turkey," Istanbul Journal of Economics-Istanbul Iktisat Dergisi, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 71(71-2), pages 395-410, December.
    11. Nomfundo Portia Vacu & Nicholas Mbaya Odhiambo, 2022. "Examining the determinants of import demand in Tanzania: An ARDL approach," International Entrepreneurship Review, Centre for Strategic and International Entrepreneurship at the Cracow University of Economics., vol. 8(1), pages 65-75.
    12. Chang, Xiao & An, Tongliang & Tam, Pui Sun & Gu, Xinhua, 2020. "National savings rate and sectoral income distribution: An empirical look at China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Cícero, Vinicius Curti & Lima, Gilberto Tadeu, 2023. "Functional distribution of income as a determinant of importing behavior: An empirical analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 393-405.
    14. Sugra Ingilab Humbatova & Natig Gadim-Ogli Hajiyev, 2020. "The Impact of Oil Factor on the Car Import in Azerbaijan," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 450-462.
    15. Giuseppe Celi, 2021. "The Labour Market Effects of International Trade in the Presence of Vertical Product Differentiation: Some Methodological Remarks in Retrospect," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-26, March.
    16. Adam, Antonis & Moutos, Thomas, 2014. "Do capital importing countries pay higher prices for their imports of goods?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 95-108.

    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. Menzie D. Chinn, 2004. "Incomes, Exchange Rates and the US Trade Deficit, Once Again," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(3), pages 451-469, December.
    2. Martin Gürtler, 2019. "Dynamic analysis of trade balance behavior in a small open economy: the J-curve phenomenon and the Czech economy," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 469-497, February.
    3. Malley, Jim & Moutos, Thomas, 2006. "Do excessive wage increases raise imports?: Theory and evidence," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 194-220, March.
    4. Menzie D. Chinn, 2005. "Doomed to Deficits? Aggregate U.S. Trade Flows Re-Examined," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(3), pages 460-485, October.
    5. Urbain, Jean-Pierre, 1995. "Partial versus full system modelling of cointegrated systems an empirical illustration," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 177-210, September.
    6. James R. Markusen, 2021. "Putting per-capita income back into trade theory," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: BROADENING TRADE THEORY Incorporating Market Realities into Traditional Models, chapter 10, pages 187-197, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Atanas Christev, 2005. "The Hyperinflation Model of Money Demand (or Cagan Revisited): Some New Empirical Evidence from the 1990s," CERT Discussion Papers 0507, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    8. Yo Chul Choi & David Hummels & Chong Xiang, 2006. "Explaining Import Variety and Quality: The Role of the Income Distribution," NBER Working Papers 12531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Norah Al-Ballaa, 2005. "Test for cointegration based on two-stage least squares," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(7), pages 707-713.
    10. Reto Foellmi & Christian Hepenstrick & Josef Zweim ller, 2010. "Non-homothetic preferences, parallel imports and the extensive margin of international trade," Diskussionsschriften dp1009, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    11. Chinn, Menzie D., 2010. "Supply Capacity, Vertical Specialisation andTrade Costs: The Implications for Aggreagate US Trade Flow Equations," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 14, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    12. Muhammed Dalgin & Vitor Trindade & Devashish Mitra, 2008. "Inequality, Nonhomothetic Preferences, and Trade: A Gravity Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(3), pages 747-774, January.
    13. Knobel, Alexander, 2011. "Estimation of import demand function in Russia," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 24(4), pages 3-26.
    14. Athanasoglou, Panayiotis P. & Bardaka, Ioanna C., 2010. "New trade theory, non-price competitiveness and export performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 217-228, January.
    15. Utku UTKULU & Dilek SEYMEN & Aydin ARI, 2010. "Export Supply and Trade Reform: The Turkish Evidence," EcoMod2004 330600144, EcoMod.
    16. Haug, Alfred A., 1999. "Testing linear restrictions on cointegration vectors: Sizes and powers of Wald tests in finite samples," Technical Reports 1999,04, Technische Universität Dortmund, Sonderforschungsbereich 475: Komplexitätsreduktion in multivariaten Datenstrukturen.
    17. Bernardina Algieri, 2014. "Drivers of Export Demand: A Focus on the GIIPS Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(10), pages 1454-1482, October.
    18. Carone, Giuseppe, 1996. "Modeling the U.S. demand for imports through cointegration and error correction," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-48, February.
    19. Jim Malley & Thomas Moutos, 1998. "Real Wages and the Structure of Imports: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers 9821, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    20. Margarita Katsimi & Thomas Moutos, 2005. "Inequality and Relative Reliance on Tariffs: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 1457, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    inequality; US import demand; vertically differentiated products; cointegration;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_1827. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.