American Economic Review Vol. 101 No. 5 2011

Segregation and the Quality of Government in a Cross Section of Countries

Alberto Alesina¹; Ekaterina Zhuravskaya²

¹ Department of Economics, Harvard University, Littauer Center 210, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, and IGIER. · ² Paris School of Economics (EHESS), 48 Boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris, and New Economic School.

Abstract

We provide a new compilation of data on ethnic, linguistic, and religious composition at the subnational level for a large number of countries. Using these data, we measure segregation of groups within the country. To overcome the endogeneity problem that arises because of mobility and endogenous internal borders, we construct an instrument for segregation. We find that more ethnically and linguistically segregated countries, i.e., those where groups live more spatially separately, have a lower quality of government; there is no relationship between religious segregation and governance. Trust is an important channel of influence; it is lower in more segregated countries.

DOI

10.1257/aer.101.5.1872

Volume

101

Issue

5

Pages

1872-1911

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

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