Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa

TLDR

Most studies hypothesize that ethnic diversity influences economic growth through its impact on macroeconomic policies. The study introduces a new index of ethnic fractionalization that counts only politically relevant ethnic groups in 42 African countries. The new index, PREG, counts only politically relevant ethnic groups, unlike previous measures that include all ethnographically distinct groups, and is used to replicate Easterly and Levine's analysis of Africa's growth tragedy. The study demonstrates that PREG better captures the policy‑mediated effects of ethnic diversity on African economic growth than the commonly used ELF measure.

Abstract

In most studies of the impact of ethnic diversity on economic growth, diversity is hypothesized to affect growth through its effect on macroeconomic policies. This article shows that most measures of ethnic diversity (including the commonly used ELF measure) are inappropriate for testing this hypothesis. This is because they are constructed from enumerations of ethnic groups that include all of the ethnographically distinct groups in a country irrespective of whether or not they engage in the political competition whose effects on macroeconomic policymaking are being tested. I present a new index of ethnic fractionalization based on an accounting of politically relevant ethnic groups in 42 African countries. I employ this measure (called PREG, for P olitically R elevant E thnic G roups) to replicate Easterly and Levine's influential article on Africa's “growth tragedy.” I find that PREG does a much better job of accounting for the policy‐mediated effects of ethnic diversity on economic growth in Africa than does ELF.