ABSTRACT
This chapter is an examination and a test of the ethnic equalization hypothesis in nine societies that have governmental policies designed to redistribute ethnic socio-economic wealth. Development economists have found in recent cross-national and time series studies that economic structure, not level of income or rate of growth, is the basic determinant of patterns of income distribution. The number of studies conducted on ethnic and racial income distributions can be counted on one hand, and none are comparative. The convergence measure will be used to examine the ethnic cabinet representation trends. The test of the inter-group equalization hypothesis will be conducted over time across three variables which are the target of the redistributive policies: income distribution, enrollment in higher education, and percentage in professional and technical occupations. The gini coefficient will be the measure used to examine intra-ethnic distribution patterns. The equalization test will examine changes toward greater socio-economic equality at different levels of economic development.
