Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/92997 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IAI Discussion Papers No. 221
Publisher: 
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research (IAI), Göttingen
Abstract: 
Combined with the expansion of economic literature on the role of ethnicity, new indices were developed to do justice to its complexity. The current indices are generally based on pre-defined groups, disregarding the (dis)similarities between them. This is sufficient to calculate the most common indices of ethnic fractionalization and polarization. But they do not measure ethnic diversity as for any diversity index the introduction of distances between groups is essential. This paper includes the distance between groups as a crucial aspect of a country's ethnic set-up. Language, ethno-racial and religious characteristics are combined in a consistent way for a composite (dis)similarity value. The resulting distance adjusted ethno-linguistic fractionalization index (DELF) is based on an extensive amount of data, containing more than 12,000 groups defined along all three characteristics and covering a wide range of countries. By applying the equivalent approach as that of the diversity measure for single countries, the DELF offers an assessment of cultural differences between countries. As the new index measures a country's ethnic diversity, it is a good starting point to review some of the existing approaches linking ethnicity to economic outcomes.
Subjects: 
Composite Index
Distance
Ethno-Linguistic Fractionalization (ELF)
Measurement
JEL: 
C43
D63
O10
Z10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.