Diversity and Conflict

Cemal Eren Arbatli (), Quamrul Ashraf, Oded Galor and Marc Klemp

No 21079, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This research advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that interpersonal population diversity, rather than fractionalization or polarization across ethnic groups, has been pivotal to the emergence, prevalence, recurrence, and severity of intrasocietal conflicts. Exploiting an exogenous source of variations in population diversity across nations and ethnic groups, as determined predominantly during the exodus of humans from Africa tens of thousands of years ago, the study demonstrates that population diversity, and its impact on the degree of diversity within ethnic groups, has contributed significantly to the risk and intensity of historical and contemporary civil conflicts. The findings arguably reflect the contribution of population diversity to the non-cohesivnesss of society, as reflected partly in the prevalence of mistrust, the divergence in preferences for public goods and redistributive policies, and the degree of fractionalization and polarization across ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups.

JEL-codes: D74 N30 N40 O11 O43 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-gro and nep-hpe
Note: DEV EFG POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Published as Cemal Eren Arbatlı & Quamrul H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2020. "Diversity and Conflict," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 727-797, March.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21079.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Diversity and Conflict (2020)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2020)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2019)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2019)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2019)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2018)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2018)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2018)
Working Paper: Diversity and Conflict (2018)
Working Paper: The Nature of Conflict (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21079

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21079

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().