POLITY, ECONOMY AND TECHNOECOLOGY - ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS FOR INCOME INEQUALITY

This article reviews Simpson's (1993) commentary and extends his analysis. His contention that the influence of agrarian population density on income inequality is spurious due to a mutual correlation with land concentration cannot be sustained when optimal data sets and alternative indicators are considered. Moreover, Simpson's use of educational variables as strictly political indicators is inappropriate; he in fact never substantiates his claim that politics is paramount in stratification. Finally, most of the explained variance in income inequality is a product of the shared variances of the independent variables. Simpson's references to unique contributions are specious.