On the ‘Arab Inequality Puzzle’: A Rejoinder

ABSTRACT This rejoinder responds to the Comment by Vladimir Hlasny and Paolo Verme on my article that was recently published in this journal. The acrimonious tone of their Comment is regrettable, and its content reveals a worldview according to which issues such as income inequality and its causal relation to social contention are ‘technical’ in nature and reserved for debate only among ‘apolitical’ econometricians. Beyond that, Hlasny and Verme's Comment adds precious little by way of new argument to the discussion.