TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethnic geography
T2 - Measurement and evidence
AU - Hodler, Roland
AU - Valsecchi, Michele
AU - Vesperoni, Alberto
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful for the clear and insightful guidance provided by the editor, Thomas Fujiwara, and the helpful comments by two anonymous referees, Magnus Hatlebakk, Mario Jametti, Nadine Ketel, Stelios Michalopoulos, Maria Petrova, Marta Reynal-Querol, M?ns S?derbom, Ragnar Torvik, David Yanagizawa-Drott, Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, and other seminar participants at IEB Barcelona, CMI Bergen, NHH Bergen, Deakin University, Lancaster University, Monash University, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, University of Gothenburg, University of Lugano, University of St.Gallen, University of Zurich, the CESifo Workshop on Political Economy, the ASWEDE conference, and the NES CSDSI International Conference ?Towards Effective and Equitable Development: the Role of Institutions and Diversity.? Steve Berggreen-Clausen and No?mie Zurlinden provided excellent research assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - We know little about how ethnic geography, i.e., the distribution of ethnic groups across space, shapes comparative economic, political and social development. To make progress and to harness the growing availability of spatially explicit data, we need indices summarizing key aspects of ethnic geography. We develop and axiomatize a novel index of ethnic segregation that takes both ethnic and spatial distances between individuals into account. We can decompose this index into indices of generalized ethnic fractionalization, spatial dispersion, and the alignment of spatial and ethnic distances. For our application, we compute different country-level versions of the segregation index and its components based on either ethnographic maps or geo-referenced survey data. Reassuringly, the different versions of the segregation index are highly correlated. We explore the relation of our indices to (i) existing measures of ethnic segregation and diversity; (ii) climatic and geographical factors; and (iii) the quality of government, economic development, and trust.
AB - We know little about how ethnic geography, i.e., the distribution of ethnic groups across space, shapes comparative economic, political and social development. To make progress and to harness the growing availability of spatially explicit data, we need indices summarizing key aspects of ethnic geography. We develop and axiomatize a novel index of ethnic segregation that takes both ethnic and spatial distances between individuals into account. We can decompose this index into indices of generalized ethnic fractionalization, spatial dispersion, and the alignment of spatial and ethnic distances. For our application, we compute different country-level versions of the segregation index and its components based on either ethnographic maps or geo-referenced survey data. Reassuringly, the different versions of the segregation index are highly correlated. We explore the relation of our indices to (i) existing measures of ethnic segregation and diversity; (ii) climatic and geographical factors; and (iii) the quality of government, economic development, and trust.
KW - Comparative development
KW - Ethnic diversity
KW - Ethnic geography
KW - Fractionalization
KW - Measurement theory
KW - Segregation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108713606&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104446
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104446
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85108713606
SN - 0047-2727
VL - 200
JO - JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
JF - JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
M1 - 104446
ER -
