中文摘要
族裔多元化国家更易发生冲突，但为何有些群体卷入冲突，而其他群体则没有？本文表明，非洲的内战可由族裔群体与中央政府的文化距离来解释：以语言距离为代理变量的文化距离增加，会提高该族裔争夺政府权力的倾向。为识别该效应，我利用了随时间推移族裔群体间权力交替所导致的族裔内部语言距离变异。我提供的证据表明，该效应可归因于对公共物品的配置与类型两方面的偏好差异。(JEL D74, H41, J15, N47, O15, O17, Z13)
Abstract
Ethnically diverse countries are more prone to conflict, but why do some groups engage in conflict, while others do not? I show that civil conflict in Africa is explained by ethnic groups’ cultural distance to the central government: an increase in cultural distance, proxied by linguistic distance, increases an ethnicity’s propensity to fight over government power. To identify this effect, I leverage within-ethnicity variation in linguistic distance resulting from power transitions between ethnic groups over time. I provide evidence that the effects can be attributed to differences in preferences over both the allocation and the type of public goods. (JEL D74, H41, J15, N47, O15, O17, Z13)