In many countries around the world, living in one subnational unit versus another can be just as important as race or class as a determinant of differential access to opportunities and wellbeing. Despite this fact, scholars still heavily emphasize interpersonal income inequality. This article develops and implements new tools to shift from interpersonal to subnational inequality and from economic to social inequality. It develops a novel concept and measurement of subnational social inequality that overcomes the inconsistencies between definitions and measurements found in existing research on the subject. Focusing on Latin America, the article applies the new measurement tools to reveal differences in the evolution and rankings of interpersonal and subnational forms of inequality. Such findings challenge our existing knowledge of both the levels and the sources of inequality in the region. To make sense of these discoveries, the article suggests that the usual drivers of interpersonal inequality—such as neoliberal reforms and authoritarianism—might drive down subnational inequality, while well-known inequality fighters—such as democratization and left party rule—might not be as effective at combating its subnational variety.

中文翻译：

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拉丁美洲的地方不平等：超越人际不平等的经验和理论意义

在世界上的许多国家，生活在一个地方单位与另一个地方单位可能与种族或阶级一样重要，因为它是获得机会和福祉差异化的决定因素。尽管如此，学者们仍然非常强调人际收入不平等。本文开发并实施了新工具，以从人际不平等转向国家以下地区的不平等，以及从经济不平等转向社会不平等。它开发了一种关于地方社会不平等的新概念和衡量标准，克服了在该主题的现有研究中发现的定义和衡量标准之间的不一致。本文以拉丁美洲为重点，应用新的衡量工具来揭示人际和地方不平等形式在演变和排名方面的差异。这些发现挑战了我们现有的关于该地区不平等程度和来源的知识。为了理解这些发现，文章认为，人际不平等的通常驱动因素——例如新自由主义改革和威权主义——可能会降低地方不平等，而众所周知的不平等斗士——例如民主化和左翼政党统治——可能不会像有效地对抗其次国家多样性。