Public Goods in Ethnically Divided Societies

• In Event: Peace from the Bottom-Up? The Role of Citizens in Peace Processes

Abstract

Ethnic diversity is generally thought to undermine public good provision for reasons ranging from diverging preferences, efficiency challenges, social norms, and strategic behavior. This study considers the role that ethnic trust and relative group status could play in explaining how ethnicity affects public good provision, focusing on groups with a history of conflict and lingering hostility. Using a public good experiment between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in post-war Kosovo, the study finds that ethnic groups contribute far more to a mutually beneficial public good when they are part of an experimentally induced co-ethnic majority than when they are in the minority. When in the minority, subjects not only underinvest, but many actively divest entirely, privatizing the public good. Majority/minority status also has wide ranging implications for how individuals relate to real-world public goods and the institutions of government that provide them. Ethnic trust appears to be an important moderator of this behavior. However, this study finds that institutional trust, intergroup contact, and beliefs about the prospects of reconciliation are important to bridging ethnic trust divides that inhibit public good provision.

Author

• Sam Whitt, High Point University