Adio Kerida: Demographic Engineering of the Economic Elite through Taxation

• In Event: Politics of Development in MENA

Abstract

Most research on demographic engineering in diverse societies focuses on physically violent policies that the political elite pursue toward non-core groups, from population exchange and expulsion to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Although taxation is at the core of the governing elite's policy toolbox to pursue political goals, little research has examined how discriminatory economic policies, such as identity taxes, can alter the ethnoreligious composition of the economic elite. Using a differences-in-differences design, we leverage the wealth tax of 1942 in Turkey that was disproportionately levied on non-Muslim minorities (Jews, Greeks, Armenians) to identify and measure the demographic impact of a discriminatory tax policy relying on an original dataset that covers individuals and businesses in Istanbul's telephone directories between 1934 and 1953. We find that the extraordinary wealth tax significantly decreased the ethnic diversity of the economic elite and helped nationalize the economy. By demonstrating that destructive tax policies can be used for demographic engineering, this article emphasizes the power of economic discrimination in altering the ethnoreligious composition of the rich in diverse societies.

Authors

• Asli Cansunar, University of Washington

• Berfin Baydar, Duke University