Measuring Regional Ethnolinguistic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Surveys vs. GIS

Boris Gershman and Diego Rivera

No 2016-05, Working Papers from American University, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper compares two approaches to measuring subnational ethnolinguistic diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa, one based on censuses and large-scale population surveys and the other relying on the use of geographic information systems (GIS). The two approaches yield sets of regional fractionalization indices that are moderately positively correlated, with a stronger association across rural areas. These differences matter for empirical analysis: in a common sample of regions, survey-based indices of deep-rooted diversity are much more strongly negatively associated with a range of development indicators relative to their highest-quality GIS-based counterparts.

Keywords: African development; ethnolinguistic diversity; GIS; subnational analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O10 O15 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-evo, nep-geo and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://doi.org/10.17606/mzwe-ef37 First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring Regional Ethnolinguistic Diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Surveys vs. GIS (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:amu:wpaper:2016-05

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