Ethnic Diversity and Informal Work in Ghana

Sefa Awaworyi Churchill and Michael Danquah

Journal of Development Studies, 2022, vol. 58, issue 7, 1312-1331

Abstract: We present the first study that examines the effects of ethnic diversity on informal work. Using two waves of data from the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey, we find that ethnic diversity is associated with a higher probability of engaging in informal work. Specifically, our instrumental variable estimates suggest that a unit increase in ethnic diversity is associated with up to a 16.7 percentage point increase in the probability of engaging in informal work. This result is robust to alternative estimation approaches and alternative ways of measuring ethnic diversity. Our results also show that trust, which is lower in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods, is an important channel through which ethnic diversity operates to increase the probability of engaging in informal work. Our results point to the need for policies that promote trust between diverse ethnic groups in heterogeneous societies.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2022.2061852 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:jdevst:v:58:y:2022:i:7:p:1312-1331

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2022.2061852

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().