Citation

Caselli F, Ii WJC. NBER Work. Pap. Ser. 2006; 2006(online): w12125.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, National Bureau of Economic Research)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We present a theory of ethnic conflict in which coalitions formed along ethnic lines compete for the economy%u2019s resources. The role of ethnicity is to enforce coalition membership: in ethnically homogeneous societies members of the losing coalition can defect to the winners at low cost, and this rules out conflict as an equilibrium outcome. We derive a number of implications of the model relating social, political, and economic indicators such as the incidence of conflict, the distance among ethnic groups, group sizes, income inequality, and expropriable resources.