The roots of ethnic diversity

Abstract

The level of ethnic diversity is believed to have significant consequences for economic and political development within countries. In this article, we provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the determinants of ethnolinguistic diversity in the world. We introduce a model of cultural and genetic drift where new groups endogenously emerge among peripheral populations in response to an insufficient supply of collective goods. In line with our model, we find that the duration of human settlements since prehistoric times has a strong positive association with current levels of ethnolinguistic diversity. Diversity is further negatively correlated with the length of modern state experience and with distance from the equator. Our results are thus consistent with both "evolutionary" and "constructivist" hypotheses of ethnolinguistic fractionalization.

Ethnic Fractionalisation and Aid Effectiveness

“…While the empirical literature has so far assumed ethnic diversity to be exogenous, Ahlerup and Olsson (2011) show that ethnic fractionalisation is systematically related to the duration of human settlement since prehistoric times (ORIGTIME i ), and to Putterman's (2007) State Antiquity Index (STATEHIST i ). This index measures the extent to which a political entity above the tribal level existed in the state's present territory in the years 1 to 1950 C.E.…”

“…Source: ORIGTIME i : Duration of human settlement. Source: Ahlerup and Olsson (2011) POLITICAL it : Index of political rights, ranging from 1 to 7, with higher values indicating less rights, averaged over the years t to t + 3. Source: Freedom House POP it : Natural logarithm of population, averaged over the years t to t + 3.…”

State history and economic development: evidence from six millennia

“…Agyears was assembled by Putterman and Trainor (2006) and it records the number of millennia elapsed in 2000 CE since the Neolithic transition took place. Origtime was coded by Ahlerup and Olsson (2012) and it represents the time in millennia since initial uninterrupted settlement by modern humans (before 2000 CE). The geographic and climatic controls are retrieved from various sources.…”

“…is a vector of historical controls including: Agyears i , the time before present since the transition to agriculture in the country in question, a variable taken from Putterman and Trainor (2006); Origtime i -the approximate time since the first settlement on the territory of the modern-day country by anatomically modern humans, a variable introduced by Ahlerup and Olsson (2012) as a determinant of the variation in levels of ethnic diversity across the world. In a more flexible specification, we include the square of Origtime i in order to account for recent developments in the literature postulating that the patterns of human settlement in prehistory may have nonlinear effects on later economic development (Ashraf and Galor 2013).…”

Does medieval trade still matter? Historical trade centers, agglomeration and contemporary economic development

“…Trade (Nunn 2008(Nunn , 2011; gender roles (Alesina et al 2013); the Neolithic revolution (e.g., Ashraf and Galor 2011, Olsson and Hibbs 2005or Putterman 2008; the capacity to adopt and develop new technologies (Comin et al 2010); or the timing of human settlement (Ahlerup and Olsson 2012). 13 We argue that medieval trade can be added to the above list.…”