Ethnic Group Bias Essay

1079 Words3 Pages

Income Shocks and Ethnic Group Bias
Motivation:
Ethnic group bias can have a strong impact on the functioning of ethnically diverse communities. It might increase the likelihood of conflict and limit cooperation among members of different ethnic groups. This is especially dangerous when one ethnic group has power over the others.Conflict, as Rohner, Thoenig, and Zilibotti (2012) show, results in lower inter-ethnic trust. This can essentially be a vicious circle, ethnic bias fuels ethnic conflict, which, again, results in more ethnic bias etc.

Miguel, Satyanath, and Sergenti (2004) relate economic shocks to the incidence of conflict. They show that negative growth shocks are strongly related to an increase in the number of conflicts. According to their findings, the impact of growth shocks is not significantly different in richer, more democratic, or more ethnically diverse countries, which is rather surprising.

Sociological theories propose several alternative explanations for ethnic bias. The …show more content…

Group bias can be measured as a difference in individual‘s attitudes towards certain group and her average attitudes. Afrobarometer’s survey results also include geographical information on participants‘ (regional and village level) and their ethnicity. Income is proxied e.g. by questions related to ownership of assets, self-assessed economic well-being and employment status. Wide range of individuals‘personal characteristics is covered, which makes it possible to control for other factors related to group bias. I will supplement Afrobarometer’s data with regional statistical data (similarly to the aforementioned paper). Similarly to Rohner, Thoenig, and Zilibotti (2012), The statistical data can be further supplemented nighttime lights in the area (see Hendorson, Storeygard and Weil (2012)) as a proxy for economic

More about Ethnic Group Bias Essay

Open Document