DP13779 Diversity and Conflict
Author(s): | Cemal , Quamrul H. Ashraf, Oded Galor, Marc Klemp |
Publication Date: | June 2019 |
Date Revised: | September 2019 |
Keyword(s): | ethnic fractionalization, ethnic polarization, interpersonal trust, Political Preferences, population diversity, Social conflict |
JEL(s): | D74, N30, N40, O11, O43, Z13 |
Programme Areas: | Economic History, Macroeconomics and Growth |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13779 |
This research advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that interpersonal population diversity has contributed significantly to the emergence, prevalence, recurrence, and severity of intrasocietal conflicts. Exploiting an exogenous source of variations in population diversity across nations and ethnic groups, it demonstrates that population diversity, as determined predominantly during the exodus of humans from Africa tens of thousands of years ago, has contributed significantly to the risk and intensity of historical and contemporary civil conflicts. The findings arguably reflect the adverse effect of population diversity on interpersonal trust, its contribution to divergence in preferences for public goods and redistributive policies, and its impact on the degree of fractionalization and polarization across ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups.