TY  - JOUR
AU  - Alesina, Alberto F
AU  - Michalopoulos, Stelios
AU  - Papaioannou, Elias
TI  - Ethnic Inequality
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18512
PY  - 2012
Y2  - November 2012
DO  - 10.3386/w18512
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18512
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18512.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alberto F. Alesina
E-Mail: *NA user is deceased

Stelios Michalopoulos
Brown University
Department of Economics
64 Waterman Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401/863-2506
Fax: 401/863-1970
E-Mail: smichalo@brown.edu

Elias Papaioannou
London Business School
Regent's Park
Sussex Place
London 
London NW1 4SA
United Kingdom
Tel:  +44 (0) 207000 8432
Fax: +44 (0) 207000 8401
E-Mail: papaioannou.elias@gmail.com
AB  - This study explores the consequences and origins of between-ethnicity economic inequality both across and within countries. First, combining satellite images of nighttime luminosity with the historical homelands of ethnolinguistic groups we construct measures of ethnic inequality for a large sample of countries and show that the latter is strongly inversely related to comparative development. Second, differences in geographic endowments across ethnic homelands explain a sizable portion of ethnic inequality contributing to its persistence over time. Third, exploiting across-district within-African countries variation using individual-level data on ethnic identification and well-being from the Afrobarometer Surveys we find that between ethnic-group inequality is systematically linked to regional under-development. In this sample we also explore the channels linking ethnic inequality to (under) development, finding that ethnic inequality maps to political inequality, heightened perceptions of discrimination and undersupply of public goods.
ER  -