Economic versus Cultural Differences: Forms of Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (4) ◽  
pp. 644-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATE BALDWIN ◽  
JOHN D. HUBER
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Effective Governance ◽  
Empirical Tests ◽  
Group Inequality ◽  
Cross National

Arguments about how ethnic diversity affects governance typically posit that groups differ from each other in substantively important ways and that these differences make effective governance more difficult. But existing cross-national empirical tests typically use measures of ethnolinguistic fractionalization (ELF) that have no information about substantive differences between groups. This article examines two important ways that groups differ from each other—culturally and economically—and assesses how such differences affect public goods provision. Across 46 countries, the analysis compares existing measures of cultural differences with a new measure that captures economic differences between groups: between-group inequality (BGI). We show that ELF, cultural fractionalization (CF), and BGI measure different things, and that the choice between them has an important impact on our understanding of which countries are most ethnically diverse. Furthermore, empirical tests reveal that BGI has a large, robust, and negative relationship with public goods provision, whereas CF, ELF, and overall inequality do not.

The effect of regional income inequality and social diversity on the provision of local public goods in Indonesia

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
Matondang Elsa Siburian
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Local Public Goods ◽  
Policy Recommendation ◽  
Social Diversity ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Regional Income ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Regional Income Inequality

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to quantify the effects of regional income disparity and social diversity on local public goods delivery in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach Using Indonesian provincial data over the period 2001–2014 and by way of System GMM, this paper circumvents endogeneity and persistence of key variables over time which may bias the estimated impact of the critical variables. Findings The result provides no significant evidence on the influence of regional income inequality on the provision of local public goods. The result reveals that ethnic diversity is associated with the more extensive provision of local public goods. A large difference in preferences toward public goods provision in a fragmented society such as Indonesia forces the local government to deliver a greater mixed of public goods to accommodate various preferences for public goods and ensure that each group has equal access to public goods. Political fragmentation within an ethnically heterogeneous society also encourages local politicians to provide a larger provision of public goods to form an inter-ethnic coalition to gain local political access. Practical implications The significant effect of ethnic diversity on public goods provision implies a set of policy recommendation for Indonesian Government in order to maintain peace within the country. The central government should establish a clear-cut standard of local public goods provision for local governments to ensure that that anyone has equal access to public goods regardless of ethnicity. This will mitigate the possibility of ethnic conflict in an ethnically plural society. Originality/value This paper extends its analysis using both fractionalization and polarization indexes to measure the social diversity in Indonesia to obtain a comprehensive knowledge regarding the influence of ethnic diversity on the public good provision. This paper proposes a set of policy recommendation for Indonesian Government to manage the effect of social diversity on the provision of local public goods. To the author’s knowledge, this has never been done before for Indonesia. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2018-0661

Clientelism, Constituency Services, and Elections in Muslim Societies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Corstange ◽  
Erin York
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Successful Strategy ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Cross National

This chapter examines the prevalence and implications of clientelism and patronage in elections in Muslim societies. The authors use cross-national evidence to show that, while clientelism is common in the Muslim world, its presence is linked more to political and economic factors than to cultural attributes. They use case evidence from within the Arab world to examine the use of clientelism in practice, and find that this linkage strategy is especially advantageous for ruling parties, but also disadvantages poor and rural communities with its transactional nature and poor public goods provision. Finally, the authors argue that clientelism is not the only successful strategy for vote-seeking politicians, even in patronage-oriented settings, as political outsiders successfully use institutionalized constituency service to attract electoral support.

Relative deprivation and ‘the diversity effect’ in explaining neighbourhood attachment: Alternative or complementary mechanisms?

Urban Studies ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 984-990
Author(s):  
Agata Górny ◽  
Sabina Toruńczyk-Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Relative Deprivation ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Economic Diversity ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Diversity Effect ◽  
Diversity Effects ◽  
Negative Link

In a 2014 paper, we demonstrated that the negative relationship between ethnic diversity and neighbourhood attachment was moderated by interethnic ties differently for migrants and natives living in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods. In this article, we respond to the Comment on our paper by Oded Stark, who proposes to interpret our findings within the framework of relative deprivation theory, and to explain the different results for migrants and natives by different preferences for diversity and resulting self-selection processes among the two groups. We argue that explaining the negative link between ethnic diversity and neighbourhood attachment by a distaste for relative deprivation is problematic given the intricacies of relationships between ethnic diversity, economic diversity, economic inequality and neighbourhood attachment. We note that employing the concept of relative deprivation in the analyses of ethnic diversity effects should acknowledge the role that interethnic ties play in the way natives and migrants define their reference groups. We also claim that preferences for diversity are unlikely to constitute a substantial basis for residential selection among migrants and natives, given the role of structural and socio-psychological factors in residential choices.

Segregation, Ethnic Favoritism, and the Strategic Targeting of Local Public Goods

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (9) ◽  
pp. 1111-1143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Ejdemyr ◽  
Eric Kramon ◽  
Amanda Lea Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnically Diverse ◽  
Local Public Goods ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Water Wells

This article demonstrates that ethnic segregation is a key determinant of local public goods provision. We argue that this results from politicians’ strategic engagement in ethnic favoritism: Only when ethnic groups are sufficiently segregated can elites efficiently target coethnics with local public goods. We test this expectation with fine-grained data from Malawi on the spatial distribution of ethnic groups, geolocated distributive goods (water wells), and the ethnic identities of political elites. We find that members of parliament provide more local public goods to their electoral districts when ethnic groups are geographically segregated but that this increased investment is primarily targeted toward coethnics. Thus, while segregation promotes overall public goods provision, it also leads to greater favoritism in the distribution of these goods. Our logic and evidence provide an elite-driven explanation for both the considerable variation in ethnic favoritism across contexts and the underprovision of public goods in ethnically diverse settings.

Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (5) ◽  
pp. 685-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soomi Lee ◽  
Dongwon Lee ◽  
Thomas E. Borcherding
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Public Goods Provision

Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Discrimination: Explaining Local Public Goods Provision

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (10) ◽  
pp. 1351-1383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Ethnic Discrimination ◽  
Local Public Goods ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Local Problems ◽  
Using Data

Numerous studies have found that ethnic diversity is negatively associated with the provision of local public goods. However, these accounts neglect both the strong role of central institutions in the provision of many “local” public goods and the frequently positive correlation between diversity and the presence of less politically powerful ethnic groups. These factors suggest that existing diversity findings may be explained in some cases by central governments discriminating against areas inhabited by less powerful groups. This hypothesis is tested using data in village-level public goods provision in Northern India, supplemented by data on service provision in Kenyan villages and American cities. While there is evidence that the presence of socially powerful groups is positively associated with service provision, evidence for the diversity hypothesis is weak. The results suggest that failures of public services in diverse areas may reflect larger inequalities within the political system rather than local problems in cooperation.

Ethnic Segregation and Public Goods: Evidence from Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUHKI TAJIMA ◽  
KRISLERT SAMPHANTHARAK ◽  
KAI OSTWALD
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Ethnic Fractionalization ◽  
Disaggregated Data ◽  
Local Segregation

This article contributes to the study of ethnic diversity and public goods provision by assessing the role of the spatial distribution of ethnic groups. Through a new theory that we callspatial interdependence, we argue that the segregation of ethnic groups can reduce or even neutralize the “diversity penalty” in public goods provision that results from ethnic fractionalization. This is because local segregation allows communities to use disparities in the level of public goods compared with other communities as leverage when advocating for more public goods for themselves, thereby ratcheting up the level of public goods across communities. We test this prediction on highly disaggregated data from Indonesia and find strong support that, controlling for ethnic fractionalization, segregated communities have higher levels of public goods. This has an important and underexplored implication: decentralization disadvantages integrated communities vis-à-vis their more segregated counterparts.

The specialization curse: How economic specialization shapes public goods provision

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 415-444
Author(s):  
Benjamin Barber ◽  
Nimah Mazaheri
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
The United States ◽  
Education Spending ◽  
Public Goods Provision ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Economic Specialization ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis paper examines the relationship between economic specialization and government expenditures. We hypothesize that citizens and firms in economically specialized regions pressure politicians to invest in core economic sectors in lieu of spending on public goods that benefit the broader economy, such as education. We investigate our hypothesis through an examination of the United States and India. We confirm a negative relationship between economically specialized U.S. states and education spending, and a positive relationship between economically specialized U.S. states and firm subsidies. Next, we examine the effects of an immediate shock in a region's level of economic specialization by comparing Indian states created from federal bifurcation. We show how the creation of two highly specialized states (Bihar and Jharkhand) from a diversified state (Undivided Bihar) was associated with a decline in education spending but an increase in subsidies for core sectors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document