The Impact of Ethnic, Religious, Geographic and Economic Factors on the Income Inequality in Iran

Özet

This study examines the effect of belonging to Persian and non-Persian ethnic groups, Shia and Sunni religious sects of Islam, living in border or non-border provinces and being oil and natural gas producer province on the income inequality in Iran. The results show there are a significant relation between ethnicity, religion and the location of provinces and inequality; regarding income per capita belonging to Persian ethnicity and Shia religion along with locating in the center of Iran are advantage while existence of oil and gas resources in a province do not bring about high income per capita. A comparative analysis of changes in income per capita of provinces or province groups with the oil revenues attests on low impact of oil incomes fluctuations on income inequality in Iran.