Empirical Assessment of Business Competitiveness and Income Distribution: A Case of Selected Lower-Middle-Income Economies
Abstract
The present study attempts to quantify the quadratic nexus between income distribution and business competitiveness. The study also adds interaction term of development expenditure with business competitiveness to examine impact of both on income inequality. The present study uses yearly panel data from 2008 to 2018 for 27 lower-middle-income economies. The results of the study are based on Quantile Regression for Panel Data (QRPD). The findings of the study reveal a U-shaped pattern between business competitiveness and income inequality. Further, an insignificant negative impact of development expenditure on income inequality is observed. However, if lower-middle-income economies take into account development expenditure with business competitiveness then the impact on income inequality gets significant with the same sign. The variable urban population is significant and decreases income inequality while broad money (proxy of financial development), trade, and rule of law have a significant role in increasing income inequality. The study suggests that development expenditure and business competitiveness may increase simultaneously for more equal distribution of income. Moreover, standardization of rule of law in lower-middle-income economies is also very important for equal distribution of income.
Downloads
Copyright (c) 2023 Muhammad Ibrahim Saeed, Saima Sarwar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
JQM follows an open-access publishing policy and full text of all published articles is available free, immediately upon publication of an issue. The journal’s contents are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. Thus, the work submitted to the journal implies that it is original, unpublished work of the authors (neither published previously nor accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere). On acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a corresponding author on the behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a completed Copyright and Author Consent Form.
