The health costs of ethnic distance: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

We show that ethnic distances lead to worse child health outcomes by impeding access to health-related information. We combine individual level micro data from DHS surveys for fourteen sub-Saharan African countries, with a high-resolution dataset on the spatial distribution of ethnic groups at the 1 × 1 sq. km level constructed using an Iterative Proportional Fitting algorithm. We show that children whose mothers are linguistically more distant to their neighbours face higher mortality rates and are shorter in size. Linguistically distant mothers are also less likely to know about the oral rehydration product for treating children with diarrhoea.

Ethnolinguistic Favoritism in African Politics

“…For example,Guiso et al (2009);Spolaore and Wacziarg (2009); Desmet et al (2012);Esteban et al (2012) andGomes (2014) all use a cladistic approach, among others.13 I use the term coethnicity to be consistent with the literature, but a more precise name would be coethnolinguists since, by definition, my measure of coethnicity implies zero linguistic distance between a group and their leader.…”

Linguistic Distance and Market Integration in India

“…These classifications are based on several sources, the most important of which is Frawley 2003). Such "cladistic" measures have become widely used in economics (Desmet et al, 2012;Gomes, 2014). 5…”

“…Another branch of the economic literature suggests mechanisms by which language barriers may inhibit market integration by raising trade costs. For example, linguistic distance may affect the costs of acquiring information (Allen, 2014;Gomes, 2014). Alternatively, linguistic distance may act as a barrier to flows of people, who are likely to be put off by migration costs, the difficulty of establishing business connections, or by xenophobia (Bai and Kung, 2017;Falck et al, 2012;Iwanowsky, 2017;Lameli et al, 2015;Rauch and Trindade, 2002).…”

“…They may capture differences in tastes, and hence the presence or absence of certain markets (Atkin, 2013(Atkin, , 2016. They may affect the costs of information transmission and coordination (Gomes, 2014). They may otherwise affect trade costs through interaction, migration, business connections, conflict, or xenophobia (Bai and Kung, 2017;Laval et al, 2016;Rauch and Trindade, 2002).…”

The Words that Keep People Apart. Official Language, Accountability and Fiscal Capacity

“…First, in international trade, language similarity is considered a facilitating factor that, other things being equal, increases exchanges (Melitz, 2008). Second, for policy outcomes such as in healthcare, if government guidance is provided in the language normally used by laypeople, it is much more effective (Djité, 2008;Gomes, 2014). Third, assimilation policies, in which education is compulsory given in a language that is different from the one of the immigrant groups, may lead to more in-ward behavior by the member of the same groups (Bisin et al, 2011;Fouka, 2020).…”