A large and growing literature links high levels of ethnic diversity to low levels of public goods provision. Yet although the empirical connection between ethnic heterogeneity and the underprovision of public goods is widely accepted, there is little consensus on the specific mechanisms through which this relationship operates. We identify three families of mechanisms that link diversity to public goods provision—what we term “preferences,” “technology,” and “strategy selection” mechanisms—and run a series of experimental games that permit us to compare the explanatory power of distinct mechanisms within each of these three families. Results from games conducted with a random sample of 300 subjects from a slum neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda, suggest that successful public goods provision in homogenous ethnic communities can be attributed to a strategy selection mechanism: in similar settings, co-ethnics play cooperative equilibria, whereas non-co-ethnics do not. In addition, we find evidence for a technology mechanism: co-ethnics are more closely linked on social networks and thus plausibly better able to support cooperation through the threat of social sanction. We find no evidence for prominent preference mechanisms that emphasize the commonality of tastes within ethnic groups or a greater degree of altruism toward co-ethnics, and only weak evidence for technology mechanisms that focus on the impact of shared ethnicity on the productivity of teams.

/pdf/why-does-ethnic-diversity-undermine-public-goods-provision-23z0pgc1j5.pdf

Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision

Why would government officials in authoritarian and transitional systems where formal democratic and bureaucratic institutions of accountability are often weak ever provide more than the minimum level of public goods needed to maintain social stability? Findings from a unique combination of in-depth case study research and an original survey of 316 villages in rural China indicate that even when formal accountability is weak, local officials can be subject to unofficial rules and norms that establish and enforce their public obligations. These informal institutions of accountability can be provided by encompassing and embedding solidary groups. Villages where these types of groups exist are more likely to have better local governmental public goods provision than villages without these solidary groups, all other things being equal.

/pdf/solidary-groups-informal-accountability-and-local-public-arnzbkggd7.pdf

Solidary Groups, Informal Accountability, and Local Public Goods Provision in Rural China

In this article, we explore the relationship between Americans’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration and their attitudes toward welfare. Using data from the Cumulative American National Election Study from 1992 to 2012, we find ample evidence of the influence of immigration attitudes on both individuals’ attitudes toward welfare recipients and their attitudes toward increased welfare spending. These immigration effects persist even in the face of statistical controls for attitudes toward African Americans and attitudes toward the poor; indeed, in our models, the magnitude of the effects of immigration attitudes surpasses the magnitude of effects of attitudes toward blacks. Further, our findings of immigration effects withstand a range of robustness tests. Our results point to the possible “immigrationalization” of Americans’ welfare attitudes and provide strong evidence that how Americans think about immigration and immigrants is a major factor in how they think about welfare.

/pdf/immigration-attitudes-and-support-for-the-welfare-state-in-2mjms4024v.pdf

Immigration Attitudes and Support for the Welfare State in the American Mass Public

Parental involvement in schools as Parent Teacher A ssociation (PTAs) and Board of Governors (BOGs) is now recognized as a widespread phenomenon. In man y contexts they constitute part of the school governance structure. Their involvement and active support in teaching and learning is critical to sustained educational quality. Their support is a c ritical factor in the success of the school and the ir cooperation with teachers enhances pupils’ performa nce. Parental involvement in schools takes different kinds and forms or aspects. As key stakeh olders in education, they are involved in mobilization of local resources, improving school ma nagement and strengthening local ownership. This article reports on the findings of a study conducte d in the Gucha district of Kenya. The main focus of the study was on school governing bodies’ roles, is sues and challenges. The study, a survey design comprising of heads (30), chairs of BOGs (30) and P TAs (30) set out to investigate the roles of BOGs and PTAs in the teaching and learning process. Thir ty secondary schools which were purposively sampled were involved in the study. Data was collec ted from the heads and chairs of BOGs and PTAs through use of questionnaires whose response rate w as 100%. The questionnaire format consisted of closed, open-ended and rating scale items. While BO Gs and PTAs were considered part of the school leadership team, they perceived their respective ro les differently and operated in an environment characterized by contradictions, challenges, tension s and conflicts which were attributed to role overlap and lack of clear guidelines. The study als o identified lack of training and appropriate induc tion programme and induction pack as challenges that imp eded the roles of the BOGs and PTAs. Also, a majority of the BOGs and PTAs lacked confidence in their roles.

Differential Perceptions, Challenges, Conflicts and Tensions in the Role of Board of Governors (BOG) and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) in Sub-Saharan Africa: A case of Kenyan Secondary Schools

Theories of ethnic mobilization and conflict tend to assume that political actors are easily able to place other actors into their “correct” ethnic categories. While this may be the case for some individuals and some categories, it is not always so. We argue that this variation, although typically ignored, has implications for theoretical, empirical, and policy-oriented research on ethnic cooperation and conflict. In this paper we propose the use of experimental methods to collect data regarding how the information actors have about the identities of others varies within a polity. We describe an experiment that provides insight into the individual and group-level determinants of ethnic “identifiability” – that is, on how well, and under what conditions, actors can correctly identify the ethnic backgrounds of others. We also demonstrate how the information gathered in this experiment informs a second set of experiments that enable us to distinguish between rival explanations for the relationship between ethnicity and collective action. The experiment described in this paper will be conducted in Uganda in JulyAugust 2003, with a trial run taking place in the U.S. in November 2002. We welcome all suggestions, theoretical and practical to help improve our research design. We wish to thank Kanchan Chandra for comments on an earlier draft of this paper and David Laitin for clever suggestions for reshaping the experimental design. 1 Center for International Development, Harvard University. 2 Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles.

http://cega.berkeley.edu/assets/miscellaneous_files/wgape/1_Posner.pdf

Ethnic Identity, Collective Action, and Conflict: An Experimental Approach

This paper explores the relationship between ethnic diversity and local school funding in Kenyan primary schools. The empirical results paint a picture of pervasive local collective action problems in ethnically diverse Kenyan primary schools. Local ethnic diversity is robustly associated with lower local school funding, less parental involvement in school functions, and fewer desks, latrines, and classrooms per pupil in ninety-seven rural Kenyan primary schools. However, local ethnic diversity is not related to average school test score performance in these schools. The theory examines the school choice and school funding process when student mobility between schools is limited by land market imperfections, and some aspect of educational quality - such as headmaster competence - differs markedly across schools. The implications for human capital accumulation, economic growth, and local collective action are discussed, especially for Africa.

/pdf/ethnic-diversity-mobility-and-school-funding-theory-and-19mlon9pta.pdf

Ethnic diversity, mobility and school funding: theory and evidence from Kenya

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Ethnic diversity, mobility and school funding: theory and evidence from Kenya