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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the nature of inter-ethnic relations in North Macedonia drawing on the 2008 European Quality of Life Survey. Ceteris paribus, the self-declared level of subjective well-being is smaller among ethnic Albanians than among Macedonians. In the presence of relative income variables, subjective well-being among both ethnic groups is not significantly associated with their absolute income. The subjective well-being of ethnic Albanians is significantly associated with their income relative to Macedonians. However, the subjective well-being of Macedonians is not affected by income relative to ethnic Albanians. The results suggest that measures are needed to reduce income inequality between ethnic groups.
Acknowledgments
Comments received from two anonymous referees have contributed to substantial strengthening of the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The Republic of North Macedonia is one of the successor states of Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in September 1991. Because of a dispute with Greece over the use of the name Republic of Macedonia, the country was admitted to the United Nations under the provisional name of “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM). In 2018, Greece and FYROM signed an agreement to end their dispute, and FYROM was renamed as the Republic of North Macedonia.
2. See Brunnbauer (Citation2004) and references cited therein for supporting evidence. Data from the national Labor Force Surveys, first conducted in 1996, also shed light on ethnic disparities in the labor market. Ethnic Albanians were at a disadvantage when compared with Macedonians in terms of unemployment, and industrial and occupational affiliation. In 1996, the unemployment rate was 21.5% among Macedonians and 51.8% among ethnic Albanians. Among employed Macedonians, 18.9% were in Agriculture, 28.3% in Manufacturing and 5.9% in Public Administrations. The corresponding figures among ethnic Albanians were 28.9%, 16.3% and 2.6%, respectively. Equally striking, 32.3% of ethnic Albanians were employed in occupations classified as unskilled workers compared to 19.3% of Macedonians.
3. In a survey conducted in 1993 by the Skopje-based Center for Ethnic Relations at the Institute for Sociological, Political and Juridical Research, among ethnic Albanians in the sample 42% felt like second class citizens because of their ethnic background, 87% felt discriminated against, and 80% disapproved of the country’s legislation regarding minority rights (see Simoska Citation1997).
4. Based on data collected in surveys, Simoska (Citation1997) notes that a transformation of the social and cultural prejudices between ethnic groups toward politically-oriented ethno-centrism was already visible around the first year of Macedonia’s independence. By 1996, expression of negative emotion and hatred against other ethnic groups was commonplace among both Macedonians and Albanians, but was more pronounced among the latter.
5. See Dolan, Peasgood, and White (Citation2008) and Clark (Citation2016) for detailed reviews of the literature on subjective well-being.
6. Beginning in 2007, the UNDP conducted a series of quality of life surveys under the People Centered Analyses Project.
7. Examples of prominent surveys include the World Values Survey, Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Survey, Gallup World Poll, Eurobarometer Survey, European Quality of Life Survey, General Social Survey in the United States, German Socioeconomic Panel, and the Life in Nation surveys in Japan.
8. Chapter 3 of the 2012 World Happiness Report (Helliwell, Layard, and Sachs Citation2012) summarizes the findings of studies on the influence of various variables on subjective well-being.
9. Duesenberry (Citation1949) was among the first to explain individual behavior in terms of relative income, though in the context of consumption behavior.
10. In the survey, the wording of the question was “How satisfied would you say you are with your life these days?” Permissible responses were integers from 1 through 10, with 1 representing least satisfied and 10 representing most satisfied.
11. In STATA, marginal effects are calculated for each observation in the data and then averaged.
12. The sum of the coefficients on LN_HHINC and the MAC*LN_HHINC interaction term is (0.0535– 0.0486) = 0.0049; F statistic (1, 1276) = 0.0422; p value = 0.8447.
13. The sum of the coefficients on LN_HHINC and the MAC*LN_HHINC interaction term in both equations 3 and 4 is also not statistically significant. In equation 3, the sum of the coefficients is (−0.0115– 0.0147) = −0.0261; F statistic (1, 1274) = 0.67; p =0.4137. In equation 4, the sum of the coefficients is (−0.0048– 0.0264) = −0.0312; F statistic (1, 1272) = 0.73; p = 0.3923.
14. The sum of the coefficients on REGIONAL_REL and the MAC*REGIONAL_REL interaction term is (0.3601– 0.2240) = 0.1361; F statistic (1, 1274) = 2.40; p value = 0.1218.
15. OWN_REL + MAC*OWN_REL = (−0.2530 + 0.4815) = 0.2285; F (1, 1272) = 0.96; p value = 0.3284.
16. The differences in the average marginal effects between the two ethnic groups at different levels of own-ethnic regional relative income are not significantly different from 0.
17. The elasticity falls from 0.1460 to 0.0898 when measured at other-ethnic regional relative income of 0.3 and 4.5, respectively.
18. OTHER_REL + MAC*OTHER_REL = (0.7383– 0.7678) = −0.0295; F (1, 1272) = 0.10; p-value = 0.7464.
19. The predictive margin of SWB of ethnic Albanians increases from 5.205 to 8.306 when the level of other-ethnic regional relative income rises from 0.3 to 4.5.