IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v81y2019icp102-127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Linguistic diversity and out-group discrimination in bilingual societies

Author

Listed:
  • Espinosa, María Paz
  • Fatás, Enrique
  • Ubeda, Paloma

Abstract

We study ethno-linguistic diversity in a lab-in-the-field experiment in two bilingual societies, with (Bilbao, in the North of Spain) and without group conflict (Valencia, in the East). Participants from two ethno-linguistic cultures interact with other participants in Homogeneous (no diversity) or Mixed (ethno-linguistic diversity) environments. Participants allocate resources in a nested public goods game with a local and a global public good. By design, by not contributing to the global (and efficient) public good participants exclude the out- group from the benefits of their contribution. Our results show that while diversity reduces contributions to the global public good in Bilbao, it does not have a negative effect in Valencia. We interpret the results with a second experiment eliciting social norms, with different subjects, and find that the positive (negative) effects of diversity in Valencia (Bilbao) are linked to optimistic empirical expectations (normative discrimination). We also show how the prevalence of discriminatory norms is sensitive to additional information about behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Espinosa, María Paz & Fatás, Enrique & Ubeda, Paloma, 2019. "Linguistic diversity and out-group discrimination in bilingual societies," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 102-127.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:102-127
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2019.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804318303392
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2019.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eckel, Catherine C. & Fatas, Enrique & Kass, Malcolm, 2022. "Sacrifice: An experiment on the political economy of extreme intergroup punishment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Brañas-Garza, Pablo & Bucheli, Marisa & Espinosa, María Paz, 2020. "Altruism and information," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Restrepo-Plaza, Lina & Fatas, Enrique, 2022. "When ingroup favoritism is not the social norm a lab-in-the-field experiment with victims and non-victims of conflict in Colombia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 363-383.
    4. Fatas, Enrique & Restrepo-Plaza, Lina, 2022. "When losses can be a gain. A large lab-in-the-field experiment on reference dependent forgiveness in Colombia," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Natural identity; Ethno-linguistic groups; Discrimination; Lab-in-the-field experiment; Group conflict;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:81:y:2019:i:c:p:102-127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.