From the Editor

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the third issue of The International Trade Journal (ITJ)’s thirty-eighth volume. The articles in this issue focus on trade, inequality, and poverty in different environments. The first two articles study trade and poverty. The first looks at the relationship between export concentration and poverty volatility, while the second looks at how institutions affect the relationship between trade and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The final two articles look at the relationship between trade and inequality in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively.

The first article in this issue, by Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, uses panel data from between 1980 and 2014 to examine the relationship between export product concentration and the volatility of several measures of poverty.¹ Across the full sample, product market concentration is associated with lower levels of poverty volatility. The effect of export concentration, however, is different in high and low-income countries. In developed economies, greater product market concentration is associated with lower poverty volatility. The reverse, however, is true in developing economies.

The second article, by Victoria Abena Nutassey, Siaw Frimpong, and Samuel Kwaku Agyei, looks at how trade openness and the quality of institutions affect poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using the Human Development Index as a broad measure of poverty, they find that greater trade openness and more robust institutions reduce poverty in the region. Moreover, they find that trade openness has a greater impact on poverty in countries with strong institutions.

The third article, by Cindy Maldonado, Carlos Moreno-Hurtado, Nataly González, and Silvia Cumbicus, examines how trade, economic complexity, and foreign direct investment affect inequality in Latin America. They do not find strong evidence of a link between internationalization and inequality. Moreover, when they do find an association, internationalization is usually linked to lower, not higher, inequality. Their empirical models suggest trade and foreign direct investment reduce inequality in upper-income economies in the region and economic complexity reduces inequality in upper-middle-income countries.² None of the three variables affect inequality in lower-middle income countries.

The final article, by Augustine Arize, Chinwe R. Okoyeuzu, Augustine Ujunwa, Angela Ujunwa, Leo-Paul Dana, and Ebere Ume Kalu, also looks at the relationship between trade and inequality. In contrast to the previous study that focused on Latin American, this article looks at Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors find that inequality is higher in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are more open to trade. They also find that unemployment is higher in the same countries.

As usual, we would like to thank the people without whom the ITJ would not succeed. These include the authors who contribute their articles, the anonymous referees who give detailed and timely comments, the team at the International Trade Institute at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) who process submissions quickly and efficiently, our Editorial Board who guide the journal, and our publisher, Taylor and Francis, who ensures the ITJ keeps its high standards.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Several recent articles in the ITJ have looked at how export concentration affects economic growth (Ribeiro, Carvalho, and Santos 2016; Siswana and Phiri 2021).

² Several other recent articles in the ITJ have looked at the relationship between income distribution and trade (Braymen and Lam 2014; Kratou and Goaied 2016; Majeed 2015).