Roots of Inequality

Arbeitspapier

Why does inequality vary across societies? We advance the hypothesis that in a market economy, where earning differentials reflect variations in productive traits, a significant component of the differences in income inequality across societies can be attributed to variation in societal interpersonal diversity, shaped during the prehistoric Out-of-Africa Migration. The roots of income inequality within the US population provide supporting evidence for the hypothesis. It suggests that variation in income inequality across groups of individuals originating from different ancestral backgrounds can be traced to the degree of diversity of their ancestral populations as was carved in the course of the dispersal of humanity from Africa.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10496

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Welfare Economics: General ; Economic Development: General ; Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology: General
• Subject: inequality ; diversity ; culture ; out-of-Africa migration

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Galor, Oded ; Klemp, Marc ; Wainstock, Daniel C.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/279246
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET