Economic Integration, Spatial Interaction and Labour Income Share: Evidence from the EU-13 Countries and the UK

Abstract

We aim to investigate the effect of Single Market Programme on the spatial interaction of labour income share amongst the EU countries. Spatial panel data analysis is used for the aim of the study. The dataset is obtained from AMECO and WDI databases and covers the time period of 1960-2017. The results show that sign of spatial interaction between these countries in term of the labour income share has turned from positive to negative after the Single Market Programme. In other words, the Single Market Programme has induced to decrease the labour income share by negatively affecting the spatial interaction between these countries. In addition, we find that although the negative impacts of capital-output ratio and trade openness on the labour income share decrease, the negative impact of total factor productivity increases after the Single Market Programme. The results of robustness check also confirm our empirical findings.