 How to make a tragedy: on the alleged effect of ethnicity on growthJean-Louis Arcand, Patrick Guillaumont () and Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney () Journal of International Development, 2000, vol. 12, issue 7, 925-938 Abstract: This paper questions the line of reasoning followed by several authors, notably Easterly and Levine according to which ethno-linguistic fragmentation, because it leads to poor policies, is the main factor explaining the 'tragedy' of low African growth. A first set of criticism concerns the model itself and stresses that current empirical work is unable to convincingly identify the channels through which ethnic fragmentation affects growth: (i) polarization may be more relevant than fragmentation, (ii) the various tests of the effect of ethnicity on the quality of policy are far from being conclusive. A second set of remarks concerns the relevance of these studies to Africa: the African sub-sample is often quite limited, and the relationship is unstable (according to Chow tests). It actually appears that ethnicity has a more important effect on growth in Africa than elsewhere. This still needs to be explained and is not as such an explanation for lower African growth. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Date: 2000 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:12:y:2000:i:7:p:925-938 DOI: 10.1002/1099-1328(200010)12:7<925::AID-JID667>3.0.CO;2-Y Access Statistics for this article Journal of International Development is currently edited by Paul Mosley and Hazel Johnson More articles in Journal of International Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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