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Luxembourg and the WTO

    For Luxembourg, a minuscule country in size and influence in the World Trade Organization, their relationship with the WTO has been mostly non-consequential. This can be seen immediately through a few telling statistics. A WTO report of Luxembourg's trade relations details the following (Luxembourg): 77.5% of merchandise exports go to European union. 77.1% of merchandise imports come from European union. 74.6% of commercial services exports go to EU. 65.4% of commercial services imports come from EU.  What this trade profile says, in effect, is that without membership in the WTO, Luxembourg would maintain their most robust trading parter, since they are a member state of the EU, and any losses in trade could be easily made up through EU trade agreements with non-member states. This isn't to say that Luxembourg's membership has been detrimental to their macroeconomic trade; it simply has not moved the needle all that much.      With that being ...
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Income Inequality in Luxembourg-- Its presence and causes

     Luxembourg, once a great example of the equity available for citizens of European countries, has begun to distance itself from its peers. From 2006 to 2016, Luxembourg's Gini Index rose from 30.9 to 33-- a stark increase and a quantitative example of their rising inequality. Understanding the reasoning for this rising inequality is vital to combating it (Gini Index (World Bank Estimate) - Luxembourg).     Luxembourg has an incredibly complicated economy. They have the highest disposable income per capita in the EU, but their poverty has risen at an extreme rate since 2000, 21.% of people are living at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and 18.7% of people in Luxembourg are considered a part of the working poor. This generation runs the risk of being the first generation to see a declining standard of living (Georgi et al. 3).      So what causes this complex, and increasingly unequal, economy. The main reasons, of which the definitions are ...
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Lorenz Curve And Income Inequality

Gini Coefficient 2006: 30.9 Gini Coefficient 2016: 33 Lorenz Curve for Luxembourg 2006-2016 This Lorenz curve and the Gini Coefficient data shows that from 2006-2016 in the country of Luxembourg, income inequality rose. Visually, we can make that assumption by looking at the Lorenz curve and seeing that the 2016 trendline is further from the line of perfect equality than the 2006 line. We can also make that assumption by looking at the Gini Coefficients from those two years; because the Gini Coefficient in 2016 is higher than the Gini Coefficient in 2006, that means that there is more income inequality in 2016.  Lorenz curves and Gini Coefficients are great, easy, and accurate ways to determine the levels of income inequality in a country. The higher the Gini Coefficient, or the further the Lorenz curve deviates from the line of perfect equality, the higher the income inequality is in a country. These tools are useful for one main reason. It is necessary for citizens and government...
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