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The purpose of the paper is to attempt to shed light on whether the use of general indexes may mask sectoral efficiencies by investigating the random walk (RW) and weak‐form efficiency (WFE) hypotheses in the equity markets of Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The paper applies the multiple variance ratio test and the runs test to each equity market's weekly general and sectoral indexes.

The paper provides evidence of inconsistencies in three of the five analyzed equity markets when testing the RW hypothesis and in four of the five analyzed markets when testing the WFE hypothesis.

The findings in this paper provide empirical evidence supporting the use of sectoral indexes in lieu of general indexes in equity market analyses. These results have important financial and policy implications and would be of interest to investors, financial managers, and policy makers.

Existence of working poverty reduces the effectiveness of the strategy of “increasing employment to reduce poverty”. Developed countries are already concerned about it but insufficient attention has been made by developing countries. Focusing on developing countries this study identifies (1) the effects of trade openness (TO) on working poverty and (2) whether the working poverty trap exists or not in developing countries. Both objectives are also analyzed for three subsamples of low income, lower-middle income and upper-middle income developing countries.

Panel data for 98 developing countries over the period of 2000–2016 have been collected for the study. Fixed effect and GMM methods are applied for static and dynamic analysis, respectively.

The study finds that TO significantly reduces working poverty rate (WPR) (mainly driven up by upper-middle income developing countries). The positive association between WPR with its previous year's rate proves the existence of working poverty trap.

The study's outcome is subject to selected time, countries and methods. Future research should use more improve methods and should identify the channels through which TO could affect working poverty.

Middle income and upper-middle income developing countries should increase TO to reduce the working poverty. Low income developing countries that have the highest working poverty should search the way to derive beneficial effects of trade on working poverty.

Working poverty is not only a developed country issue rather it is a global phenomenon. Hence, it is expected that the study will raise the social consciousness about this phenomenon in developing countries too.

The study fulfills the gaps of identifying the effects of TO on working poverty and existence of in-work poverty trap in developing countries.