The Impact of Capital Account Openness on Income Inequality: Empirical Evidence from Asia

The relationship between income inequality and capital account openness is empirically investigated in this study, where macroeconomic variables have opposing effects. Panel data used in the study from the KAOPEN Index and World Bank consists of 28 Asian countries and has been examined; it contains annual observations from 1970 to 2018. The data is examined using a random-effect model based on GMM estimates. Income inequality and capital account openness are positively and significantly related, according to our findings. Overall, the findings imply that increasing income gaps reduced capital investment in nations with large discrepancies. The growing economic discrepancy is being caused by the rich’s increasing income share at the expense of the poor. In Asia, inward capital account openness exacerbates income inequality, while outward capital account openness exacerbates it. As a result, income inequality slows economic growth, leading to inflation, unemployment, and increased government spending in several Asian countries. Our control factors, GDP, and other secondary school enrolments, all had a statistically significant negative relationship with income inequality. Income disparity has a positive and statistically significant association with government spending, inflation, population, trade openness, and unemployment. Income disparity has a negative association with capital account openness, gross domestic product, and secondary school enrollment.