Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/278908 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16210
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Why does inequality vary across societies? We advance the hypothesis that in a market economy, where earning differentials reflect variations in productive traits among individuals, a significant component of the differences in inequality across societies can be attributed to variation in societal interpersonal diversity, shaped by the prehistorical out-of-Africa migration. Exploring the roots of inequality within the US population, we find supporting evidence for our hypothesis: variation in the inequality across groups of individuals originating from different ancestral backgrounds can be traced to the degree of diversity of their ancestral populations. This effect is sizable: a move from the lowest to the highest level of diversity in the sample is associated with an increase in the Gini index from the median to the 75th percentile of the inequality distribution.
Subjects: 
inequality
diversity
culture
out-of-Africa migration
JEL: 
D60
O10
Z10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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