ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the whole sample of countries and compares the effects of land distribution on income inequality. The multivariate statistical analysis investigates the effect of ethnic heterogeneity as a causal factor determining income inequality. The results of the analysis show that ethnic heterogeneity and in particular historical ethno-class exploitation have significant effects on income inequality today. Slavery has been most important in modern times in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America exactly the macro-regions with the highest levels of economic inequality today. In the regression analysis, the net effect of each variable is of central interest, while qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in general and Fuzzy Set Analysis (FSA) in particular explicitly seeks to unravel the interplay of characteristic groupings of variables, that is, causal conditions. Factors of the political system in the form of welfare state structures and/or Communist rule make the difference whether historic ethnic exploitation and present ethnic fractionalization lead to equal or unequal income distributions.
