Indigenous Income Disparity and Resguardo Land in Colombia

Abstract

This article examines the association between the resguardo, a colonial land access system similar to the North American reserve and reservation systems, and income inequality among Indigenous people in Colombia. I regressed the variable income unmet basic needs gap (IUBNgap) between Indigenous people and non-minority people in Colombia on a set of regressors that included the mean of resguardo land size per family. I find that more resguardo land per family is associated with a larger IUBNgap, which is likely due to the fact that resguardos tend to be larger where lands are isolated and where most of the land suitable for economic production is owned by nonIndigenous landowners.