RACIAL HETEROGENEITY AS A DETERMINANT OF INCOME INEQUALITY IN LATIN AMERICA: Long-term effects of colonial caste institutions in Latin America.

Studies have shown that while Latin America and the Caribbean is the world's most unequal region, income inequality has descended unambiguously for almost all of its countries and territories since the year 2000. Political and economic factors have been used to explain this change: a commodity boom along with new policies from the "new left" or "Pink Tide" governments occurred around the same period (McLeod and Lustig 2011). However, racial heterogeneity and inequalities could also hold important explanatory value in understanding the high inequality levels experienced in the subcontinent, as well as the differences between some countries' ability to reduce inequality faster than others. The causal relationships between race and inequality have been partially established by an interdisciplinary literature. This paper will examine the relation of racial heterogeneity with Gini income inequality levels from 1993 until 2014, while at the same time delving into historical institutional relations between race and socioeconomic status. The paper will give a framework that places racial relations at a central position in understanding inequality in Latin America, and eventually, elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]