The Relationship Among Trade Openness, Financial Development and Economic Growth Indicators and Income Distribution Inequality: Testing the Kuznets, Financial Kuznets, and Stolper-Samuelson Hypotheses

Abstract

This study investigates the complexities of the Kuznets, Financial Kuznets, and Stolper-Samuelson hypotheses, all of which hold fundamental positions in the literature. The primary objective is to scrutinize the intricate interplay among economic growth, financial development, trade openness, and income distribution inequality across nations and characterized by varying developmental stages. This analytical framework seeks to empirically evaluate the aforementioned hypotheses, specifically within the context of diverse clusters of countries. In this vein, a comprehensive investigation of the nexus connecting economic growth, financial development, trade openness, and income distribution inequality unfolds across a dataset encompassing 19 developing economies and 22 developed counterparts over the 2002-2019 period. The empirical assessment has been accomplished through a panel data analysis. The empirical findings shed light on distinctive patterns in the relationship between the specified economic factors and income inequality for the two distinct groups of countries. These empirical insights strengthen the validity of both the Kuznets and financial Kuznets hypotheses. However, the outcomes also exhibit a nuanced complexion in relation to the Stolper-Samuelson hypothesis. While the empirical underpinning within developed countries aligns with the Stolper-Samuelson premise, the observed outcomes in developing nations diverge from the tenets of the Stolper-Samuelson hypothesis, thereby introducing a layer of complexity to the overall findings.