Ethnic Diversity, Public Spending, and Individual Support for the Welfare State: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Stichnoth, Holger; Straeten, Karine Van der

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6419.2011.00711.x

Cited by 115 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 125 publications

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“…In spite of a rich set of empirical findings, the overall picture on whether ethnic diversity and social cohesion are negatively associated remains inconclusive (Portes & Vickstrom, 2011;Stichnoth & Straeten, 2013). Two recent meta-analytic reviews show that studies focusing on specific measures of social cohesion, rather than abstract notions of generalized trust, as well as small-scale aggregate units, such as neighborhoods or cities, mostly find confirmatory evidence of a negative association (van der Meer & Tolsma, 2014, Schaeffer, 2014.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational diversity and neighbourhood cohesion. Unpacking variety, balance and in-group size

Koopmans

Schaeffer

2015

Social Science Research

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Ethnic diversity is typically measured by the well-known Hirschman-Herfindahl Index. This paper discusses the merits of an alternative approach, which is in our view better suited to tease out why and how ethnic diversity matters. The approach consists of two elements. First, all existing diversity indices are nonrelational. From the viewpoint of theoretical accounts that attribute negative diversity effects to in-group favoritism and out-group threat, it should however matter whether, given a certain level of overall diversity, an individual belongs to a minority group or to the dominant majority. We therefore decompose diversity by distinguishing the in-group share from the diversity of ethnic out-groups. Second, we show how generalized entropy measures can be used to test which of diversity's two basic dimensions matters most: the variety of groups, or the unequal distribution (balance) of the population over groups. These measures allow us to test different theoretical explanations against each other, because they imply different expectations regarding the effects of in-group size, out-group variety, and balance. We apply these ideas in an analysis of various social cohesion measures across 55 German localities and show that both in-group size and out-group diversity matter. For the native majority as well as for persons of immigration background, the variety component of diversity seems to be more decisive than has formerly been acknowledged. These findings provide little support for group threat and in-group favoritism as the decisive mechanisms behind negative diversity effects, and are most in line with the predictions of theories that emphasize coordination problems, asymmetric preferences, and network closure.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relational diversity and neighbourhood cohesion. Unpacking variety, balance and in-group size

Koopmans

Schaeffer

2015

Social Science Research

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“…They ask how this affects native citizens' views on redistribution and the size of the welfare state. The main contribution of their paper is that they, in contrast to the (predominantly negative) correlational evidence that several other studies have documented between immigration and demand for redistribution (in addition to Alesina et al, 2001and Alesina and Glaeser, 2004, see also Shayo, 2009Stichnoth and Van der Straeten, 2013;Harmon, 2014), 5 claim to be able to study the causal relationship. During the years 1985 to 1994, a refugee placement program was in place in Sweden to achieve a more even distribution of refugees over the country.…”

Section: Evidence On the Importance Of Racial/ethnical Heterogeneity mentioning

confidence: 78%

Nordic Economic Policy Review

Andersen¹,

Roine²,

Bratsberg³

et al. 2016

TemaNord

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“…Previous empirical work tends to support the former part of this prediction -i.e. a negative heterogeneity-redistribution relationship -but i) restricts attention to linguistic, racial, or ethnic heterogeneity dimensions (for a survey, see Stichnoth and Van der Straeten, 2013) and ii) fails to test the theoretical mechanism -i.e. weakening social identification -underlying this relation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Heterogeneity and Fiscal Policy: Evidence from German Reunification

Freier

Geys

Holm³

2013

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract: Theoretical work based on social identity theory and in-group favoritism predicts that increased population diversity (e.g., due to immigration) reduces support for redistributive public policies. In this article, we add to the empirical literature testing this prediction in three ways. First, rather than ethno-linguistic or racial heterogeneity, we analyze religious diversity, which in many countries is an increasingly important source of diversity. Second, to account for the potential endogeneity of heterogeneity, we analyze an exogenous shock in diversity due to the German reunification. Finally, we assess shifts in local individuals' social identification after immigration took place, which, while untested in previous contributions, is a critical theoretical mechanism. Our results -using tax and spending decisions of 2031 Bavarian municipalities over the 1983-2005 period -indicate that Catholic municipalities in particular significantly reduced their level of taxes and spending in response to non-Catholic immigration. These effects arise only after the first post-reunification local elections, suggesting a critical mediating role of the democratic process. Terms of use: Documents inKeywords: local identity, fiscal policy, redistribution, German reunification, diff-in-diff estimation JEL classification: H10, H11, H77 * Corresponding author: Benny Geys, Norwegian Business School BI, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Tel.: +47 46410923, Email: Benny.Geys@bi.no. We are grateful to Zareh Asatryan, Friedrich Heinemann, Kai Konrad, Ronnie Schöb, Marcel Thum and seminar participants at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the WZB Berlin for insightful comments on a previous version. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Ethnic Diversity, Public Spending, and Individual Support for the Welfare State: A Review of the Empirical Literature

Cited by 115 publications

References 125 publications

Relational diversity and neighbourhood cohesion. Unpacking variety, balance and in-group size

Relational diversity and neighbourhood cohesion. Unpacking variety, balance and in-group size

Nordic Economic Policy Review

Religious Heterogeneity and Fiscal Policy: Evidence from German Reunification

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