Impact of fintech, mineral resources extraction, and globalization on social inequality: Exploring the role of technology innovation in G10 economies

Social instability and other conflicts directly relate to income inequality in any region where policymakers are keenly interested. Likewise, the recent financial development and digitalization process greatly impact social development. Hence, this study examines the role of financial technologies, mineral resources and globalization in determining the trends in social disparity through income inequality in G10 countries. Cross-sectional auto-regressive distributed lagged models have been applied using annual data from 1990 to 2021. Initially, the results reject the absence of cross-sectional dependence, homogeneity in the slope coefficients and non-existence of panel cointegration. To address these issues, the cross-sectional ARDL model is applied. The long-run findings report that financial technologies and globalization reduce income inequality, while mineral resources and technological innovations cause more social inequality. The short-run findings show that technological innovation and globalization are positively (negatively) associated with income inequality. The robustness checks were performed using the Augmented Mean Group estimator. The results suggest the adoption of fintech and transforming mineral industries to promote inclusive economic growth. •Derives of social inequality is explored in G10 countries.•CS-ARDL and AMG estimators applied from 1990 to 2021.•Finitech reduce inequality, while mineral resource abundance increase it.•Eco-technologies and globalization reduce income inequality in the region.