Impact of trade openness on agricultural income inequality in Korea: Income differences according to farmers' age

Based on the trade openness-income inequality nexus, this study investigates the relationship between agricultural trade openness and agricultural income inequality in Korea, considering farmers' ages. We use data covering the period 2000–2020 and four main agricultural products (rice, vegetables, fruits, and livestock) in Korea with three different age groups: 49 years and younger (young), 50–59 years (middle), and 60 years and older (old). A panel autoregressive model with the Kuznets curve hypothesis framework reveals that, while the income difference between the young and old groups exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship, that between the young and middle groups displays a U-shaped relationship. The inverted-U results may reflect younger farmers' tendency to adapt to new farming practices and technologies from the free trade agreement (FTA) corresponding policy, compared to retirement-age farmers. On the other hand, the U-shaped results imply that the middle group has more agricultural assets to produce more value from FTA-corresponding policies than the young group.