Income Inequality, International Migration, and National Pride: A Test of Social Identification Theory

Does the income inequality of a country increase the nationalistic sentiments of its citizens? If so, why do people become more nationalistic when inequality grows? This article answers these questions, which have been historically observed and theoretic-ally suggested, but rarely answered with empirical tests. By borrowing formal models in Shayo (2009) and using a multilevel analysis method with survey data in multiple years, this article shows that income inequality increases the national pride of poor people, which is an essential aspect of nationalistic sentiments, particularly in coun-tries whose lower class has many migrants. This result implies that the link between income inequality, income levels, and nationalistic sentiments may be shaped by other social features such as the level of migration