Diversity and Public Goods: a Natural Experiment with Exogeneous Residential Allocation

Yann Algan, David Laitin and Hémet, Camille

No 8621, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper demonstrates the effects of ethnic and religious diversity on the quality of public spaces. Its identification strategy relies on the exogeneity of public housing allocations in France, and thereby eliminates the bias from endogenous sorting. The paper uses micro evidence of social interactions within housing blocks from the representative French Housing survey, which allows for a detailed identification of the channels through which diversity operates. Differentiating among three channels of public goods provision, the paper finds that heterogeneity in the housing block leads to low levels of sanctions for anti-social behavior and low levels of collective action to improve housing conditions, but no losses in public safety.

Keywords: Discrimination; Fractionalization; Public good (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H10 H41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-soc and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8621 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The Social Effects of Ethnic Diversity at the Local Level: A Natural Experiment with Exogenous Residential Allocation (2013)
Working Paper: The Social Effects of Ethnic Diversity at the Local Level: A Natural Experiment with Exogenous Residential Allocation (2013)
Working Paper: Diversity and Public Goods: A Natural Experiment with Exogenous Residential Allocation (2011)
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:cpr:ceprdp:8621

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP8621

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().