Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/126288 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2014/162
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
The hypothesis that ethnic diversity has a negative impact on public goods provision is widely accepted. Notably, most work on this issue fails to distinguish adequately between national versus subnational governance. We find that subnational empirical evidence in particular is inconclusive, and speak to this gap with new analysis at the Zambian district level. Results lend strong support to an emerging body of work challenging the 'diversity debit' hypothesis: we find no clear evidence of a negative impact but instead a robust positive association with key welfare outcomes. Contra the conventional wisdom, future work should explore mechanisms underlying the 'diversity dividend' now suggested in multiple subnational analyses.
Subjects: 
ethnic diversity
government performance
education
health
Zambia
JEL: 
D71
H41
H72
H75
I18
I28
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9230-883-4
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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