The last Yugoslavs: Ethnic diversity and national identity
Leonard Kukić
Explorations in Economic History, 2023, vol. 88, issue C
Abstract:
Nation-building is often proposed as a device for integration in ethnically divided societies. The determinants of national sentiment, however, remain imperfectly understood. This paper analyses the role of interethnic contact in the process of nation formation within multiethnic Yugoslavia, just before its disintegration in 1991. Using a variety of data sources and empirical strategies, I find that interethnic contact stimulated the formation of the Yugoslav nation. I argue that ethnic intermarriage is the key mechanism through which ethnic diversity influenced the adoption of a shared Yugoslav identity. These results illustrate the powerful effect that interethnic contact can have in reducing ethnic division even in a tense ethnic environment on the verge of conflict, like that of Yugoslavia.
Keywords: Yugoslavia; Nationalism; Ethnic diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N4 O10 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498322000754
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
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:eee:exehis:v:88:y:2023:i:c:s0014498322000754
DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2022.101504
Access Statistics for this article
Explorations in Economic History is currently edited by R.H. Steckel
More articles in Explorations in Economic History from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().