Income Distribution, International Integration and Sustained Poverty Reduction

Goldberg, Pinelopi Koujianou ; Reed, Tristan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: POVERTY;    INEQUALITY;    MARKET SIZE;    TRADE AGREEMENTS;    REGIONAL INTEGRATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9342
RP-ID  :  WPS9342

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

What is the pathway to development in aworld with less international integration? This paperanswers this question within a model that emphasizes therole of demand-side constraints on national development,which is identified with sustained poverty reduction. Inthis framework, development is linked to the adoption of anincreasing returns to scale technology by imperfectlycompetitive firms that need to pay the fixed setup cost ofswitching to that technology. Sustained poverty reduction ismeasured as a continuous decline in the share of thepopulation living below $1.90/day purchasing power parity in2011 US dollars over a five year period. This outcome isaffected in a statistically significant and economicallymeaningful way by domestic market size, which is measured asfunction of the income distribution, and internationalmarket size, which is measured as a function oflegally-binding provisions to international tradeagreements, including the General Agreement on Tariffs andTrade, the World Trade Organization and 279 preferentialtrade agreements. Counterfactual estimates suggest that, inthe absence of international integration, the averageresident of a low or lower-middle income country does notlive in a market large enough to experience sustainedpoverty reduction.