Public goods and ethnic divisions
By: Alesina, Alberto.
Contributor(s): Easterly, William | Baqir, Reza.
Material type:
ArticlePublisher: 1999Description: p.1243-284.Subject(s): Public goods - United States | Public utilities - United States | Public utilities
In:
Quarterly Journal of EconomicsSummary: We present a model that links heterogeneity of preferences across ethnic groups in a city to the amount and type of public goods the city supplies. We test the implications of the model with three related data sets: U.S. cities, U.S. metropolitan areas, and U.S. urban counties. Results show that the shares of spending on productive public goods - education, roads, sewers and trash pickup - in U.S. cities (metro areas/urban counties) are inversely related to the city's (metro area's/county's) ethnic fragmentation, even after controlling for other socioeconomic and demographic determinants. We conclude that ethnic conflict is an important determinant of local public finances. - Reproduced
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | Volume no: 114, Issue no: 4 | Available | AR44029 |
We present a model that links heterogeneity of preferences across ethnic groups in a city to the amount and type of public goods the city supplies. We test the implications of the model with three related data sets: U.S. cities, U.S. metropolitan areas, and U.S. urban counties. Results show that the shares of spending on productive public goods - education, roads, sewers and trash pickup - in U.S. cities (metro areas/urban counties) are inversely related to the city's (metro area's/county's) ethnic fragmentation, even after controlling for other socioeconomic and demographic determinants. We conclude that ethnic conflict is an important determinant of local public finances. - Reproduced
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