Abstract
An ethnic polarization index is a summary statistic of ethnic diversity in a population. Reynal-Querol (J Confl Resolut 46:29–54, 2002) suggested an index of ethnic polarization, the RQ index, and discussed its properties. In this paper we develop two ethnic polarization orderings that can rank ethnic distributions in terms of all ethnic polarization indices satisfying certain intuitively reasonable postulates. Some of these postulates and some additional ones taken from the earlier literature are employed to develop some axiomatic characterizations of the RQ index. In the process, a generalized form of the RQ index is also characterized.
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The authors thank Biswarup Das, Jean-Yves Duclos, Joan Esteban and two anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful comments and suggestions.
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Chakravarty, S.R., Maharaj, B. Ethnic polarization orderings and indices. J Econ Interact Coord 7, 99–123 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403-011-0084-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403-011-0084-z