Existing research has shown that highly diverse countries tend to provide less public goods. This article argues, by contrast, that the relationship is spurious: both contemporary ethnic heterogeneity and low public goods provision represent legacies of a weakly developed state capacity inherited from the past. Classical theories of state formation are then tested to show that favorable topography and climate, high population densities, as well as a history of warfare are conducive to state formation. Using an instrumental variable approach, I show that previous ethnic diversity is not consistently an impediment to the formation of indigenous states and thus to contemporary public goods provision. Empirically, this article uses three different measurements of public goods provision and data on pre-colonial levels of state formation in Asia and Africa to test these various hypotheses.

References

Ahlerup, P. ( 2009 , September ). The causal effects of ethnic diversity: An instrumental variable approach (Working Papers in Economics, 386). Gothenburg, Sweden : University of Gothenburg .

Google Scholar

Ahlerup, P., Olsson, O. ( 2012 ). The roots of ethnic diversity . Journal of Economic Growth, 17(2), 17 - 102 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Alesina, A., Baqir, R., Easterley, W. ( 1999 ). Public goods and ethnic divisions . Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114, 1243 - 1284 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Alesina, A., Devleeschauwer, A., Easterley, W., Kurlat, S., Wacziarg, R. ( 2003 ). Fractionalization . Journal of Economic Growth, 8, 155 - 194 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Alesina, A., Glaeser, E. L. ( 2004 ). Fighting poverty in the US and Europe: A world of difference. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Alesina, A., La Ferrara, E. ( 2000 ). Participation in heterogeneous communities . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115, 847 - 904 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Alesina, A., La Ferrara, E. ( 2005 ). Ethnic diversity and economic performance . Journal of Economic Literature, 63, 762 - 800 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Algan, Y., Hémet, C., Laitin, D. ( 2011 , October ). Diversity and public goods: A natural experiment with exogenous residential allocation (Institute for the Study of Labor Discussion Paper, 6053). Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp6053.pdf

Google Scholar

Baldwin, K., Huber, J. D. ( 2011 ). Economic versus cultural difference. Forms of ethnic diversity and public goods provision . American Political Science Review, 104, 644 - 662 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Banerjee, A., Lakshimi, I., Somanathan, R. ( 2005 ). History, social divisions, and public goods in rural India . Journal of the European Economic Association, 3, 639 - 647 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Bates, R. H. ( 1983 ). Essays on the political economy of rural Africa. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Bjornskov, C. ( 2004 ). Determinants of generalized trust: A cross-country comparison . Public Choice, 130, 1 - 21 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Bockstette, V., Chanda, A., Putterman, L. ( 2002 ). States and markets: The advantage of an early start . Journal of Economic Growth, 7, 347 - 369 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Brubaker, R. ( 2013 ). Language, religion, and the politics of difference . Nations and Nationalism, 19, 1 - 20 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Carneiros, R. L. ( 1970 ). A theory of the state . Science, 21, 733 - 738 .

Google Scholar

Chai, S.-K. ( 1996 ). A theory of ethnic group boundaries . Nations and Nationalism, 2, 281 - 307 .

Google Scholar Crossref

Desmet, K., Weber, S., Rotuno-Ortin, I. ( 2010 ). Linguistic diversity and redistribution . Journal of the European Economic Association, 7, 1291 - 1318 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Deutsch, K. W. ( 1953 ). Nationalism and social communication: An inquiry into the foundations of nationality. Cambridge, MA : MIT-Press .

Google Scholar

Easterly, W., Levine, R. ( 1997 ). Africa’s growth tragedy: Policies and ethnic divisions . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112, 1203 - 1250 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Englebert, P. ( 2000 ). Pre-colonial institutions, post-colonial states, and economic development in tropical Africa . Political Research Quarterly, 53, 7 - 36 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Fearon, J. D. ( 2003 ). Ethnic and cultural diversity by country . Journal of Economic Growth, 8, 195 - 222 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Fearon, J. D., Laitin, D. D. ( 2003 ). Ethnicity, insurgency, and civil war . American Political Science Review, 97, 1 - 16 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Fernandez, J. W. ( 1966 ). Folklore as an agent of nationalism . In Wallerstein, I. (Ed.), Social change and the colonial situation (pp. 585 - 591 ). New York, NY : John Wiley .

Google Scholar

Gennaioli, N., Rainer, I. ( 2007 ). The modern impact of precolonial centralization in Africa . Journal of Economic Growth, 12, 185 - 234 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gerring, J., Thacker, S., Lu, Y., Huang, W. ( 2015 ). Does diversity impair human development? A multi-level test of the diversity debit hypothesis . World Development, 66, 166 - 188 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Gerring, J., Zarecki, D., Hoffman, M. ( 2013 ). Ethnic diversity and democracy. Unpublished Manuscript, Department of Political Science, Boston University .

Google Scholar

Gerring, J., Ziblatt, D., van Gorp, J., Arévalo, J. ( 2011 ). An institutional theory of direct and indirect rule . World Politics, 63, 377 - 433 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Glennerster, R., Miguel, E., Rothenberg, A. D. ( 2013 ). Collective action in diverse Sierra Leone communities . The Economic Journal, 123, 285 - 316 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Golden, M., Min, B. ( 2013 ). Distributive politics around the world . Annual Review of Political Science, 16, 73 - 99 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Goldin, C., Katz, L. F. ( 1999 ). The shaping of higher education: The formative years in the United States, 1890-1940 . Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13, 37 - 62 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Habyarimana, J., Humphreys, M., Posner, D. N., Weinstein, J. M. ( 2007 ). Why does ethnic diversity undermine public goods provision? American Political Science Review, 101, 709 - 725 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Harries, P. ( 1989 ). Exclusion, classification and internal colonialism: The emergence of ethnicity among the Tsonga-speakers of South Africa . In Vail, L. (Ed.), The creation of tribalism in Southern Africa (pp. 82 - 110 ). London, England : James Currey .

Google Scholar

Herbst, J. ( 2000 ). States and power in Africa. Comparative lessons in authority and control. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

Hopkins, D. J. ( 2011 ). The limited impacts of ethnic and racial diversity . American Politics Research, 39, 344 - 379 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Knack, S., Keefer, P. ( 1997 ). Does social capital have an economic payoff? A cross-country investigation . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 112, 1251 - 1288 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Kramon, E., Posner, D. N. ( 2012 ). Ethnic favoritism in primary education in Kenya. Los Angeles, CA : Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles .

Google Scholar

Kroneberg, C., Wimmer, A. ( 2012 ). Struggling over the boundaries of belonging: A formal model of nation-building, ethnic closure, and populism . American Journal of Sociology, 118, 176 - 230 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., Shleifer, A., Vishny, R. ( 1999 ). The quality of government . The Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, 15, 222 - 279 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Laitin, D., Samatar, S. S. ( 1987 ). Somalia: Nation in search of a state. Boulder, CO : Westview Press .

Google Scholar

Lemarchand, R. ( 1964 ). Political awakening in the Congo. Berkeley : University of California Press .

Google Scholar

Lewis, I. M. ( 1988 ). A modern history of Somalia: Nation and state in the horn of Africa. Boulder, CO : Westview Press .

Google Scholar

Lewis, I. M. ( 1994 ). Blood and bone: The call of kinship in Somali society. Lawrenceville, NJ : The Red Sea Press .

Google Scholar

Lieberman, E. S., McClendon, G. C. H. ( 2011 ). Endogenous ethnic preferences. Princeton, NJ : Department of Political Science .

Google Scholar

Loveman, M., Muniz, J. ( 2006 ). How Puerto Rico became white: Boundary dynamics and inter-census racial classification . American Sociological Review, 72, 915 - 939 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Maddison, A. ( 2003 ). The world economy: Historical statistics. Paris, France : OECD .

Google Scholar Crossref

Mahoney, J. ( 2000 ). Path dependency in historical sociology . Theory and Society, 29, 507 - 548 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Mahoney, J. ( 2010 ). Colonialism and postcolonial development: Spanish America in comparative perspective. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Mahzab, M., Atiq, M., Devrariani, N. ( 2013 ). Comparative analysis of ethnic diversity measures on provisioning of basic public goods: Cross country assessment. Unpublished Manuscript, Center for Development Economics, Williams College

Google Scholar

Michalopoulos, S. ( 2012 ). The origins of ethnic diversity . American Economic Review, 102, 1509 - 1539 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Miguel, E. ( 2004 ). Tribe or nation? Nation building and public goods in Kenya versus Tanzania . World Politics, 56, 327 - 362 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Miguel, E., Gugerty, M. K. ( 2005 ). Ethnic diversity, social sanctions, and public goods in Kenya . Journal of Public Economics, 89, 2325 - 2368 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Mitchell, J. C. ( 1974 ). Perceptions of ethnicity and ethnic behaviour: An empirical exploration . In Cohen, A. (Ed.), Urban ethnicity (pp. 1 - 35 ). London, England : Tavistock .

Google Scholar

Montalvo, J. G., Reynal-Querol, M. ( 2005 ). Ethnic polarization, potential conflict and civil wars . American Economic Review, 95, 796 - 816 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Müller, H.-P. ( 1999 ). Atlas vorkolonialer Gesellschaften. Sozialstrukturen und kulturelles Erbe der Staaten Afrikas, Asiens und Melanesiens. Ein ethnologisches Kartenwerk für 95 Länder mit Texten, Datenbanken und Dokumentationen auf CD-ROM. Berlin, Germany : Reimer .

Google Scholar

Mylonas, H. ( 2012 ). The politics of nation-building: Making co-nationals, refugees, and minorities. Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref

Nunn, N. ( 2008 ). The long-term effects of Africa’s slave trades . The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123, 139 - 176 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Olson, M. ( 1965 ). The logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press .

Google Scholar

Peel, J. D. Y. ( 1989 ). The cultural work of Yoruba ethnogenesis . In Tonkin, E., McDonald, M., Chapman, M. (Eds.), History and ethnicity (pp. 964 - 982 ). London, England : Routledge & Kegan Paul .

Google Scholar

Poterba, J. M. ( 1997 ). Demographic structure and the political economy of public education . Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 16(1), 48 - 66 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Putnam, R. ( 2007 ). E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century . Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137 - 174 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Putterman, L., Weil, D. N. ( 2010 ). Post-1500 population flows and the long-run determinants of economic growth and inequality . Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125, 1627 - 1682 .

Google Scholar Crossref | Medline | ISI

Ranger, T. ( 1966 ). Traditional authorities and the rise of modern politics in Southern Rhodesia, 1898-1930 . In Stokes, E., Brown, R. (Eds.), The Zambezian past: Studies in central African history (pp. 94 - 136 ). Manchester, UK : University of Manchester Press .

Google Scholar

Rodrik, D. ( 1999 ). Where did all the growth go? External shocks, social conflict, and growth collapses . Journal of Economic Growth, 4, 385 - 412 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Rodrik, D., Subramanian, A., Trebbi, F. ( 2004 ). Institutions rule: The primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development . Journal of Economic Growth, 9, 131 - 165 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Roeder, P. G. ( 2007 ). Where nation-states come from: Institutional change in the age of nationalism. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

Ross, M. ( 2012 ). The oil curse. How petroleum wealth shapes the development of nations. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

Sala-i-Martin, X., Doppelhoffer, G., Miller, R. I. ( 2004 ). Determinants of long-term growth: A Bayesian averaging of classical estimates (BACE) approach . American Economic Review, 94, 813 - 835 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Sachs, J. D. ( 2003 ). Institutions don’t rule: Direct effects of geography on per capita income (NBER Working Paper, 9490). Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w9490

Google Scholar

Samatar, A. I. ( 1999 ). An African miracle. State and class leadership and colonial legacy in Botswana Development. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann .

Google Scholar

Schapera, I. ( 1952 ). The ethnic composition of Tswana tribes. London, England : London School of Economics and Political Science .

Google Scholar

Soroka, S., Banting, K., Johnston, R. ( 2002 ). Ethnicity, trust, and the welfare state . In Kay, F., Johnston, R. (Eds.), Diversity, social capital and the welfare state (pp. 95 - 132 ). Vancouver, Canada : University of British Columbia Press .

Google Scholar

Tefft, S. K. ( 1999 ). Perspectives on panethnogenesis: The case of the Montagnards . Sociological Spectrum, 19, 387 - 400 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Tilly, C. ( 1975 ). Western state-making and theories of political transformation . In Tilly, C. (Ed.), The formation of national states in Western Europe (pp. 601 - 638 ). Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar

Trounstine, J. (n.d.). One for you, two for me: Support for public goods investment in diverse communities. Unpublished manuscript, University of California , Merced .

Google Scholar

Vigdor, J. L. ( 2004 ). Community composition and collective action: Analyzing initial mail response to the 2000 census . The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86(1), 303 - 312 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Weber, E. ( 1979 ). Peasants into Frenchmen: The modernization of rural France, 1870-1914. London, England : Chatto & Windus .

Google Scholar

Wimmer, A. ( 2014 ). Nation building. A long-term perspective and global analysis : European Sociological Review, 30(6).

Google Scholar

Wimmer, A., Cederman, L.-E., Min, B. ( 2009 ). Ethnic politics and armed conflict: A configurational analysis of a new global dataset . American Sociological Review, 74, 316 - 337 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Wimmer, A., Feinstein, Y. ( 2010 ). The rise of the nation-state across the world, 1816 to 2001 . American Sociological Review, 75, 764 - 790 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Wimmer, A., Min, B. ( 2006 ). From empire to nation-state. Explaining wars in the modern world, 1816-2001 . American Sociological Review, 71, 867 - 897 .

Google Scholar SAGE Journals | ISI

Wimmer, A., Min, B. ( 2009 ). The location and purpose of wars around the world. A new global dataset, 1816-2001 . International Interactions, 35, 390 - 417 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Wolf, E. ( 1982 ). Europe and the people without history. Berkeley : University of California Press .

Google Scholar

Woodberry, R. D. ( 2012 ). The missionary roots of liberal democracy . American Political Science Review, 106, 244 - 274 .

Google Scholar Crossref | ISI

Young, C. ( 1965 ). Politics in the Congo: Decolonization and independence. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .

Google Scholar Crossref