TY - JOUR
T1 - Fractionalization
AU - Alesina, Alberto
AU - Devleeschauwer, Arnaud
AU - Easterly, William
AU - Kurlat, Sergio
AU - Wacziarg, Romain
PY - 2003/6
Y1 - 2003/6
N2 - We provide new measures of ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization for about 190 countries. These measures are more comprehensive than those previously used in the economics literature and we compare our new variables with those previously used. We also revisit the question of the effects of ethnic, linguistic, and religious heterogeneity on the quality of institutions and growth. We partly confirm and partly modify previous results. The patterns of cross-correlations between potential explanatory variables and their different degree of endogeneity makes it hard to make unqualified statements about competing explanations for economic growth and the quality of government. Our new data, which features the underlying group structure of ethnicities, religions and languages, also allows the computation of alternative measures of heterogeneity, and we turn to measures of polarization as an alternative to the commonly used index of fractionalization.
AB - We provide new measures of ethnic, linguistic, and religious fractionalization for about 190 countries. These measures are more comprehensive than those previously used in the economics literature and we compare our new variables with those previously used. We also revisit the question of the effects of ethnic, linguistic, and religious heterogeneity on the quality of institutions and growth. We partly confirm and partly modify previous results. The patterns of cross-correlations between potential explanatory variables and their different degree of endogeneity makes it hard to make unqualified statements about competing explanations for economic growth and the quality of government. Our new data, which features the underlying group structure of ethnicities, religions and languages, also allows the computation of alternative measures of heterogeneity, and we turn to measures of polarization as an alternative to the commonly used index of fractionalization.
KW - Ethnic heterogeneity
KW - Government quality
KW - Growth
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U2 - 10.1023/A:1024471506938
DO - 10.1023/A:1024471506938
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:2542572413
SN - 1381-4338
VL - 8
SP - 155
EP - 194
JO - Journal of Economic Growth
JF - Journal of Economic Growth
IS - 2
ER -