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Ethnic Diversity, Democracy, and Health: Theory and Evidence

Author

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  • Go Kotera

    (Institute of Economic Research, Kyoto University)

  • Nobuhiro Mizuno

    (Faculty of Commerce and Economics, Chiba University of Commerce)

  • Keisuke Okada

    (Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University,)

  • Sovannroeun Samreth

    (Faculty of Liberal Arts, Saitama University)

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between ethnic composition, political regimes, and the quality of public policy. Specifically, based on the citizen-candidate model, we assume individuals who have heterogeneous policy preferences and investigate how ethnic diversity affects selection of a politician and the resulting policy choices in democratic and dictatorial regimes. In the theoretical analysis, our model derives (1) a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and the quality of public policy, both in a democracy with a dominant group and in a dictatorship, and (2) a non-monotonic relationship in a democracy without a dominant group. In the empirical examination, using health outcomes as the proxy for the quality of public policy, our theoretical results are supported by evidence from the data of 154 countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Go Kotera & Nobuhiro Mizuno & Keisuke Okada & Sovannroeun Samreth, 2011. "Ethnic Diversity, Democracy, and Health: Theory and Evidence," KIER Working Papers 790, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:kyo:wpaper:790
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    2. Sefa Awaworyi Churchill & Maria Rebecca Valenzuela & Wisdom Sablah, 2017. "Ethnic diversity and firm performance: Evidence from China’s materials and industrial sectors," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(4), pages 1711-1731, December.
    3. Okada, Keisuke, 2018. "Health and political regimes: Evidence from quantile regression," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 307-319.
    4. Bandyopadhyay, Siddhartha & Bhalla, Manaswini & Chatterjee, Kalyan & Roy, Jaideep, 2017. "Strategic dissent in the Hotelling–Downs model with sequential entry and private information," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 51-66.
    5. Gregorini, Filippo, 2015. "Political geography and income inequalities," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 439-452.
    6. Egorov, Georgy & Sonin, Konstantin, 2015. "The killing game: A theory of non-democratic succession," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 398-411.

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    Keywords

    Citizen-candidate model; Ethnic fractionalization; Infant mortality.;
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