Publication: The political economy of linguistic cleavages
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2012-03
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Elsevier
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Abstract
This paper uses a linguistic tree, describing the genealogical relationship between all 6912 world languages, to
compute measures of diversity at different levels of linguistic aggregation. By doing so, we let the data inform
us on which linguistic cleavages are most relevant for a range of political economy outcomes, rather than
making ad hoc choices. We find that deep cleavages, originating thousands of years ago, lead to better
predictors of civil conflict and redistribution. The opposite pattern emerges when it comes to the impact of
linguistic diversity on growth and public goods provision, where finer distinctions between languages matter
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Keywords
Ethnolinguistic cleavages, Diversity, Linguistic trees, Civil conflict, Redistribution, Public goods, Growth
Bibliographic citation
Journal of Development Economics, 2012, v. 97, n. 2, pp. 322-338