The Effect of Knowledge-Based Economy Components on Income Inequality in Selected Countries

Abolfazl Shahabadi ¹ ( Professor in Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. )
Roghayeh Pouran ² ( Post-Doc Researcher, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran )
Negar Naserinia ³ ( MA in Economics, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Science and Eco-nomics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran )

Submited date : 2022-11-26 Accepted date : 2024-07-22

Keywords: Education &amp, Human resources, Innovation System, Economic Incentives &amp, Institutional Regime, Information &amp, Communication Technology Infrastructure,

Abstract :

Income inequality is the cause of many social disorders such as poverty, economic inequality and class gap in societies and is one of the most important economic issues of countries. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the determinants of income inequality with the aim of policy making in order to reduce inequality. For this purpose, the present study, using the panel data approach and the Generalized Moments Method (GMM) investigates the effect of Knowledge-Based Economy components on income inequality in two groups of selected countries with per capita income above 20,000 $ and per capita income less than 20,000 $. The period of research has been covered in 2010-2019. The results show that improving the Education & Human resources in both groups of selected countries has a negative and significant effect on income inequality, while improving the Information & Communication Technology Infrastructure in both groups of selected countries has a positive and significant effect on income inequality. had. Also, the improvement of the Innovation System in the group of countries with a per capita income above 20,000 $ has increased the share of both the upper and lower deciles of the society and has a positive effect on income inequality. While in the group of countries with per capita income less than 20,000 $, it reduces the share of the top decile of income and has had a positive but insignificant effect on the share of the bottom decile of the society in the countries of this group. Finally, improving the Economic Incentives & Institutional Regime in the group of countries with per capita income above 20,000 $ has a negative and significant effect on income inequality, while in the group of countries with per capita income less than 20,000 $ it has a positive and significant effect on income inequality.