Culture, Ethnicity and Diversity

Romain Wacziarg, Klaus Desmet and Ortuño-Ortin, Ignacio

No 10451, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We investigate the empirical relationship between ethnicity and culture, defined as a vector of traits reflecting norms, values and attitudes. Using surveys of individual values in 76 countries, we find that ethnic identity is a significant predictor of cultural values, yet that within-group variation in culture trumps between-group variation. Thus, in contrast to a commonly held view, ethnic and cultural diversity are unrelated. Although only a small portion of a country's overall cultural heterogeneity occurs between groups, we find that various political economy outcomes (such as civil conflict and public goods provision) worsen when there is greater overlap between ethnicity and culture.

Keywords: Between-group diversity; Civil conflict; Cultural fractionalization; Cultural traits; Culture; Ethnicity; Heterogeneity; Identity; Social norms; Within-group diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D74 J15 P48 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-evo, nep-gro, nep-mfd, nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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Journal Article: Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity (2017)
Working Paper: Culture, Ethnicity and Diversity (2015)
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