TY - JOUR
T1 - Unity in diversity? How intergroup contact can foster nation building
AU - Bazzi, Samuel
AU - Gaduh, Arya
AU - Rothenberg, Alexander D.
AU - Wong, Maisy
N1 - Funding Information:
* Bazzi: Department of Economics, Boston University, 270 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215 (email: sbazzi@ bu.edu); Gaduh: Department of Economics, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, Business Building 402, Fayetteville, AR 72701 (email: agaduh@walton.uark.edu); Rothenberg: Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244 (email: adrothen@maxwell.syr.edu); Wong: Wharton Real Estate, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Locust Walk, 1464 SHDH, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (email: maisy@wharton.upenn.edu). Esther Duflo was the coeditor for this article. We thank the following for helpful feedback: Alberto Alesina, Oriana Bandiera, Toman Barsbai, Giorgio Chiovelli, Raquel Fernandez, Paola Giuliano, Dilip Mookherjee, Nathan Nunn, Daniele Paserman, Ben Olken, Imran Rasul, Duncan Thomas, and audiences at Boston University, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, the Kiel Institute, McGill, MIT, Notre Dame, Syracuse, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado Denver, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, University of Toronto, Wellesley College, the Barcelona Graduate School Summer Forum, the 2017 DIAL Development Conference, the 2017 Midwest International Development Conference, the NBER Political Economy meeting, the Ninth International Migration and Development Conference, the 2016 Annual European Conference of ASREC, the Yale Interdisciplinary Migration Conference, and the Northeast Universities Development Consortium 2016 Conference. Bazzi is grateful for financial support from the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. Wong is grateful for financial support from the Research Sponsors Program of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center and the Wharton Social Impact program. A previous version of this paper circulated under the title “Unity in Diversity? Ethnicity, Migration, and Nation Building in Indonesia.” Richard Jin, Gedeon Lim, JoonYup Park, Ying Pei, Xuequan Peng, and Hanna Schwank provided excellent research assistance. All errors remain ours. The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. †Go to https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20180174 to visit the article page for additional materials and author disclosure statements.
Funding Information:
Esther Duflo was the coeditor for this article. We thank the following for helpful feedback: Alberto Alesina, Oriana Bandiera, Toman Barsbai, Giorgio Chiovelli, Raquel Fernandez, Paola Giuliano, Dilip Mookherjee, Nathan Nunn, Daniele Paserman, Ben Olken, Imran Rasul, Duncan Thomas, and audiences at Boston University, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, the Kiel Institute, McGill, MIT, Notre Dame, Syracuse, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado Denver, UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, University of Toronto, Wellesley College, the Barcelona Graduate School Summer Forum, the 2017 DIAL Development Conference, the 2017 Midwest International Development Conference, the NBER Political Economy meeting, the Ninth International Migration and Development Conference, the 2016 Annual European Conference of ASREC, the Yale Interdisciplinary Migration Conference, and the Northeast Universities Development Consortium 2016 Conference. Bazzi is grateful for financial support from the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. Wong is grateful for financial support from the Research Sponsors Program of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center and the Wharton Social Impact program. A previous version of this paper circulated under the title “Unity in Diversity? Ethnicity, Migration, and Nation Building in Indonesia.” Richard Jin, Gedeon Lim, JoonYup Park, Ying Pei, Xuequan Peng, and Hanna Schwank provided excellent research assistance. All errors remain ours. The authors declare that they have no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 American Economic Association. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - We use a population resettlement program in Indonesia to identify long-run effects of intergroup contact on national integration. In the 1980s, the government relocated two million ethnically diverse migrants into hundreds of new communities. We find greater integration in fractionalized communities with many small groups, as measured by national language use at home, intermarriage, and children's name choices. However, in polarized communities with a few large groups, ethnic attachment increases and integration declines. Residential segregation dampens these effects. Social capital, public goods, and ethnic conflict follow similar patterns. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of localized contact in shaping identity.
AB - We use a population resettlement program in Indonesia to identify long-run effects of intergroup contact on national integration. In the 1980s, the government relocated two million ethnically diverse migrants into hundreds of new communities. We find greater integration in fractionalized communities with many small groups, as measured by national language use at home, intermarriage, and children's name choices. However, in polarized communities with a few large groups, ethnic attachment increases and integration declines. Residential segregation dampens these effects. Social capital, public goods, and ethnic conflict follow similar patterns. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of localized contact in shaping identity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076037499&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076037499&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/aer.20180174
DO - 10.1257/aer.20180174
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076037499
SN - 0002-8282
VL - 109
SP - 3978
EP - 4025
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
IS - 11
ER -