Ethnic Inequality

Alberto Alesina, Elias Papaioannou and Stelios Michalopoulos

No 9225, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: This study explores the consequences and origins of contemporary differences in well-being across ethnic groups within countries. We construct measures of ethnic inequality combining ethnolinguistic maps on the spatial distribution of groups with satellite images of light density at night. Ethnic inequality is strongly inversely related to per capita income; this pattern holds when we condition on the overall degree of spatial inequality -that is also associated with underdevelopment. We further show that differences in geographic endowments across ethnic homelands explain a sizable portion of contemporary ethnic inequality. This deeply rooted inequality in geographic attributes across ethnic regions is also negatively related to comparative development. We also show that ethnic inequality goes in tandem with lower levels development within countries. Using micro-level data from the Afrobarometer surveys we show that individuals from the same ethnic group are worse off when they reside in districts with a high degree of ethnic inequality.

Keywords: Ethnicity; Diversity; Inequality; Development; Geography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O40 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dev, nep-geo, nep-ltv and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP9225 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Ethnic Inequality (2016)
Working Paper: Ethnic Inequality (2016)
Working Paper: Ethnic Inequality (2013)
Working Paper: Ethnic Inequality (2012)
Working Paper: Ethnic Inequality (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9225

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP9225

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().