IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v12y2023i6p1133-d1156940.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethnicities in Post-Communist Romania: Spatial Dynamics, Fractionalisation, and Polarisation at the NUTS-3 Level

Author

Listed:
  • Marina-Alexandra Rotaru

    (Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Bulevardul Vasile Parvan no 4, 300223 Timişoara, Romania)

  • Remus Creţan

    (Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Bulevardul Vasile Parvan no 4, 300223 Timişoara, Romania)

  • Ana-Neli Ianăş

    (Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Bulevardul Vasile Parvan no 4, 300223 Timişoara, Romania)

Abstract

Scholars have shown a special interest in discovering and studying the role of ethnic diversity and spatiality at the country and region levels. This study contributes to the theoretical debate on the spatial dynamics of ethnicities, with the aim of (1) determining the evolution of ethnic dynamics in post-communist Romania and (2) applying ethnic fractionalisation and polarisation indices. The study uses a mixed methods approach based on a descriptive statistics analysis and applies the fractionalisation and polarisation indices to Romania’s NUTS-3 (i.e., county) level. The findings suggest that the ethnic spatial dynamics in post-communist Romania have shown a decrease in all ethnicities due to migration and low birth rates, with the exception of the Roma ethnicity, for whom the trend is increasing. Additionally, polarisation and fractionalisation indices have different evolutionary manifestations depending on the dynamics of the ethnic groups present in certain geographical areas. Although neither of the two analysed indices has witnessed profound change at the spatial level, these small changes in spatial and short-term ethnic diversity can help us advance knowledge about co-existence in ethnically diverse societies. Higher values of the two indices are obvious in several counties where ethnic Hungarians cohabitate with Romanians and other ethnicities. This discovery can inform policy-makers to implement more policies for the further peaceful co-existence of Hungarians, Romanians, and other ethnic groups in Transylvania and other western counties in Romania. Furthermore, as the population growth trend for the Roma ethnicity is upward, Romania has to implement proper policies and build better government infrastructure to counter social inequality against the Roma people. This will help curb potential conflicts between the Roma and other ethnic groups at the local level. Finally, as most ethnicities decreased in number in post-communist times, further attention needs to be paid to the erosion of ethnic diversity in Romania because this could have a negative impact on economic development, social trust, and democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina-Alexandra Rotaru & Remus Creţan & Ana-Neli Ianăş, 2023. "Ethnicities in Post-Communist Romania: Spatial Dynamics, Fractionalisation, and Polarisation at the NUTS-3 Level," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-29, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:1133-:d:1156940
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1133/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/6/1133/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nauro F. Campos & Vitaliy S. Kuzeyev, 2007. "On the Dynamics of Ethnic Fractionalization," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(3), pages 620-639, July.
    2. Nauro Campos & Ahmad Saleh & Vitaliy Kuzeyev, 2011. "Dynamic ethnic fractionalization and economic growth," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 129-152.
    3. Esteban, Joan & Ray, Debraj, 1994. "On the Measurement of Polarization," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(4), pages 819-851, July.
    4. William Easterly & Ross Levine, 1997. "Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1203-1250.
    5. Vigdor, Jacob L., 2002. "Interpreting ethnic fragmentation effects," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 271-276, April.
    6. Abhijit Banerjee & Lakshmi Iyer & Rohini Somanathan, 2005. "History, Social Divisions, and Public Goods in Rural India," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 639-647, 04/05.
    7. Remus Creţan & Ryan Powell, 2018. "The Power of Group Stigmatization: Wealthy Roma, Urban Space and Strategies of Defence in Post†socialist Romania," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 423-441, May.
    8. Easterly, William, 2001. "Can Institutions Resolve Ethnic Conflict?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(4), pages 687-706, July.
    9. Banerjee, Abhijit & Somanathan, Rohini, 2007. "The political economy of public goods: Some evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 287-314, March.
    10. Remus Creţan & Petr Kupka & Ryan Powell & Václav Walach, 2022. "EVERYDAY ROMA STIGMATIZATION: Racialized Urban Encounters, Collective Histories and Fragmented Habitus," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 82-100, January.
    11. Bove, Vincenzo & Elia, Leandro, 2017. "Migration, Diversity, and Economic Growth," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 227-239.
    12. Persson, Torsten & Tabellini, Guido, 1992. "Growth, distribution and politics," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(2-3), pages 593-602, April.
    13. Iancu-Constantin Berceanu & Nicolae Popa, 2022. "A Sample of Resilient Intercultural Coexistence in Ethnic Hungarian, Serbian and Bulgarian Communities in Western Romania," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-24, July.
    14. Fum, Ruikang Marcus & Hodler, Roland, 2010. "Natural resources and income inequality: The role of ethnic divisions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(3), pages 360-363, June.
    15. Alesina, Alberto & Drazen, Allan, 1991. "Why Are Stabilizations Delayed?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(5), pages 1170-1188, December.
    16. Baldwin, Kate & Huber, John D., 2010. "Economic versus Cultural Differences: Forms of Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(4), pages 644-662, November.
    17. S. Mansoob Murshed & Scott Gates, 2005. "Spatial–Horizontal Inequality and the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(1), pages 121-134, February.
    18. Daniel N. Posner, 2004. "Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 849-863, October.
    19. Miguel, Edward & Gugerty, Mary Kay, 2005. "Ethnic diversity, social sanctions, and public goods in Kenya," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2325-2368, December.
    20. Nora Lustig, 2012. "Taxes, Transfers, and Income Redistribution in Latin America," World Bank - Inequality in Focus, The World Bank, vol. 1(2), pages 1-5, July.
    21. Montalvo, Jose G. & Reynal-Querol, Marta, 2005. "Ethnic diversity and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 293-323, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Mihaela-Iuliana Desculțu Grigore & Amalia Niță & Ionuț-Adrian Drăguleasa & Mirela Mazilu, 2024. "Geotourism, a New Perspective of Post-COVID-19-Pandemic Relaunch through Travel Agencies—Case Study: Bucegi Natural Park, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-52, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Viola Berlepsch, 2019. "Does Population Diversity Matter for Economic Development in the Very Long Term? Historic Migration, Diversity and County Wealth in the US," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(5), pages 873-911, December.
    3. Usman Khalid & Mohammad Amin, 2023. "The impact of ethnic fractionalisation on labor productivity: Does firm size matter?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 2213-2249, October.
    4. Bluhm, Richard & Thomsson, Kaj, 2015. "Ethnic divisions, political institutions and the duration of declines," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112863, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Zhu, Junbing & Grigoriadis, Theocharis N., 2022. "Chinese dialects, culture & economic performance," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés & Von Berlepsch, Viola, 2017. "Does population diversity matter for economic development in the very long-term? Historic migration, diversity and county wealt," CEPR Discussion Papers 12347, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Phanindra V. Wunnava & Aniruddha Mitra & Robert E. Prasch, 2015. "Globalization and the Ethnic Divide: Recent Longitudinal Evidence," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1475-1492, November.
    8. Liu, Kai & Yang, Jidong & Zou, Hongwei, 2020. "Cultural heterogeneity, social policy, and economic growth in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Bluhm, Richard & Thomsson, Kaj, 2015. "Ethnic divisions, political institutions and the duration of declines: A political economy theory of delayed recovery," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-556, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    10. Nikolaj A. Harmon, 2010. "The End of the European Welfare States? Migration, Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods," Working Papers 1277, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2003. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2028, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    12. Bluhm, Richard & Thomsson, Kaj, 2020. "Holding on? Ethnic divisions, political institutions and the duration of economic declines," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    13. Joseph Flavian Gomes, 2020. "The health costs of ethnic distance: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 195-226, June.
    14. Casey, Gregory P. & Owen, Ann L., 2014. "Inequality and Fractionalization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 32-50.
    15. Nauro Campos & Ahmad Saleh & Vitaliy Kuzeyev, 2011. "Dynamic ethnic fractionalization and economic growth," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 129-152.
    16. Gisselquist, Rachel M. & Leiderer, Stefan & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2016. "Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Goods Provision in Zambia: Evidence of a Subnational “Diversity Dividend”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 308-323.
    17. Wunnava, Phanindra V. & Mitra, Aniruddha & Prasch, Robert E., 2012. "Globalization, Institutions, and the Ethnic Divide: Recent Longitudinal Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 6459, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Rachel M. Gisselquist & Stefan Leiderer & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2014. "Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Goods Provision in Zambia: Further Evidence of a Subnational 'Diversity Dividend'," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-162, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Khemmarat, Khemrutai, 2013. "Local exposure to toxic releases: Examining the role of ethnic fractionalization and polarisation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 249-259.
    20. Kanbur, Ravi & Rajaram, Prem Kumar & Varshney, Ashutosh, 2011. "Ethnic Diversity and Ethnic Strife. An Interdisciplinary Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 147-158, February.

    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:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:1133-:d:1156940. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.