Empirical Analysis of Public Expenditures and Income Inequality among Developing Economies

Empirical Analysis of Public Expenditures and Income Inequality among Developing Economies | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Empirical Analysis of Public Expenditures and Income Inequality among Developing Economies Mulatu Fekadu Zerihun This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2968285/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Developing economies are not immune to the inequality challenges. Inequality is one of the critical challenges affecting the livelihood in developing economies and hinders their development paths. This paper investigates the World Bank development policies in achieving income inequality in selected developing economies. To achieve this objective, three types of regressions carried out for all three income groups; pooled OLS regression, random effect and fixed effect generalized least square GLS) regressions on panel data from 1980 to 2020. Findings revealed that wide-ranging World Bank initiatives in supporting low-income countries in promoting public expenditures on education, health and R&D are key factors to address the problems associated with income inequality. In addition, the study revealed that the debt service ratio, World Bank loan, international development assistance, and foreign direct investment have no significant power to reduce inequality within the analysed countries. Consequently, the study recommends authorities of developing countries be more cautious when applying for loans or aid and also have a serious evaluation before allowing foreign investors to start a business within their respective countries. JEL Classification: D63; F68; I24; P36 Developing Economies Gini Coefficient Income Inequality Panel Data Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2968285","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":203680414,"identity":"6b72f46f-a7d1-4782-857e-239e06bf4a95","order_by":0,"name":"Mulatu Fekadu Zerihun","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBAC+wYGhsMgBnt7A5FaGGFaeM4AqQPEamEGa7mRTKQWZvbeh4cL2+5E80i+Pyb9gcFOnoH/8AO8Wth4jhscntn2LLdHOplN4gBDsmEDwzEDvFp4JNIYDvO2Hc7dD9HCnAB0K34tEvLPIFp6JA+DtNQnAN36Aa8WAwk2qBYJZpCWwwlAt+K3xYAH6DCec0AtPMnGFmcMjhu28fAU4NVi336M+TNPGVAL+8GHNyoqquX5+Y9vwKsF3VJgGJKifhSMglEwCkYBdgAAUqxAdHZgyS0AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Tshwane University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mulatu","middleName":"Fekadu","lastName":"Zerihun","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-05-22 20:59:11","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2968285/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2968285/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":38325653,"identity":"abf925d1-2ded-4269-96e6-34d7c47d04ea","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-06-10 08:29:34","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":330731,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"InequalitypaperFV4Springeramended.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2968285/v1_covered_096a1dd6-cd72-4dde-801c-0ab375125ded.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Empirical Analysis of Public Expenditures and Income Inequality among Developing Economies","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Developing Economies, Gini Coefficient, Income Inequality, Panel Data","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2968285/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2968285/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eDeveloping economies are not immune to the inequality challenges. 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