| 简介： | Abstract: Does the ethnic homogeneity or fragmentation of a society affect whether income inequality will narrow or widen with economic growth? We study this question by comparing the growth-inequality relationship on American Indian reservations with U.S. states and other countries. To do so, we first construct a new data set of Gini coefficients for a panel of reservations spanning 1945 to 2010. Using non-parametric methods, we find that ethnically fragmented reservations have tended to follow the same trend of exclusive growth – i.e., rising inequality - found elsewhere in the United States. For those reservations which are historically ethnically homogenous and distinct from the US population, however, growth has been inclusive, as it has been marked with falling inequality. The findings provide new evidence on the role of ethnic homogeneity in moderating inequality.
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