Geography of Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Its Developmental Consequences

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Economy

Abstract

The literature suggests ethnolinguistic diversity has negative effects on development and governance. However, what has been overlooked is the pattern of diversity. Current measures of ethnolinguistic diversity do not account for the geographical distribution of ethnolinguistic groups, thus failing to distinguish between situations where 1) members of ethnolinguistic groups spread over the country and 2) each ethnolinguistic group clusters in a specific region (homogeneity within a region). I argue the two diversity patterns have different implications for policy choices and cooperation prospects. Relying on census data and large-scale household health surveys, I propose a new dataset on ethnolinguistic diversity in 24 Sub-Saharan African countries, measuring both a country’s 1) overall diversity degree and 2) distributional evenness of diversity. The dataset is dynamic, covering changes in the two indicators since the late 1990s. Using time-series models, I find diversity harms a country’s economic growth and governance qualities only if ethnolinguistic groups are pervasively distributed nationwide. For countries where ethnolinguistic groups are clustered in regions, I find no link between the country’s overall diversity and indicators of growth and governance. Moreover, I find growth and governance are facilitated when major ethnolinguistic groups are equally represented in the national government, especially when the geographical distribution of diversity is uneven.

Author

• Haofeng Ma, The University of Iowa