| Abstract: |
This research advances the hypothesis and establishes empirically that
interpersonal population diversity has contributed significantly to the
emergence, prevalence, recurrence, and severity of intrasocietal conflicts.
Exploiting an exogenous source of variations in population diversity across
nations and ethnic groups, it demonstrates that population diversity, as
determined predominantly during the exodus of humans from Africa tens of
thousands of years ago, has contributed significantly to the risk and
intensity of historical and contemporary civil conflicts. The findings
arguably reflect the adverse effect of population diversity on interpersonal
trust, its contribution to divergence in preferences for public goods and
redistributive policies, and its impact on the degree of fractionalization and
polarization across ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. |