Religious Pluralism and Organizational Diversity: An Empirical Test in the City of Zwolle, the Netherlands, 1851-1914

Abstract

We explore the effect of population heterogeneity on organizational diversity. We do so in the context of a city community. Our argument is that organizational diversity will be positively affected by heterogeneity within the city's population. We focus on a key aspect of population heterogeneity: religious pluralism. We test our logic with time series data for the Dutch city of Zwolle in the 1851-1914 period and find clear evidence for our key logic.

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