SGER: Ethnic Diversity, Social Capital, and Public Goods in East Africa

这一探索性研究试图对发展的政治经济学文献做出至少三个贡献，使用原始数据收集、微观计量经济学分析和形式理论。 首先，该研究估计了肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚两个国家的民族多样性对当地公共产品提供的影响。 正在收集关于地方公益物的数据，包括学校经费、威尔斯的维修和社区参与村民会议。 由此产生的数据集提供了关于种族划分对各种环境和结果中公共产品提供的影响的信息。 初步的实证研究结果表明，较高的当地民族多样性与急剧降低当地资金和90所肯尼亚农村小学的设施较差。 与从完全种族同质性到中等学校种族多样性的变化相关的资金下降约为当地学校平均资金的25%，这种关系对于纳入地理，社会经济，人口统计和教师质量控制是稳健的。 种族多样化的地区也有较低的社区参与学校委员会会议，以及大大恶化的水井维护在肯尼亚西部农村。第二，研究探讨中央政府对种族的政策如何影响种族间的关系和公共产品的提供，通过比较两个附近的农村地区的结果：一个在肯尼亚西部，一个在坦桑尼亚西部。 尽管有着共同的地理、历史和殖民遗产，肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚的中央政府自独立以来一直遵循着截然不同的民族政策。最后，本研究探讨了坦桑尼亚最近的地方政府权力下放改革对当地公共利益成果的影响。 在这个项目中收集的独特的数据集，使作者能够测试的假设，权力下放改革改善公共产品的结果，并探讨这种改革是否是由于当地集体行动的失败，在种族多样化的地区效果较差。 鉴于许多非洲国家和其他欠发达国家目前正朝着权力下放的方向发展，了解权力下放在不同社区的影响具有重要的政策意义，坦桑尼亚的实地数据收集工作是与一个有能力的当地非政府组织合作进行的，该组织拥有训练有素的实地研究人员和数据输入小组。 作者自1995年以来一直参与东非的实地数据收集项目。

This exploratory research attempts to make at least three contributions to the literature on the political economy of development, using original data collection, microeconometric analysis, and formal theory. First, the research estimates the impact of ethnic diversity on local public goods provision in two countries, Kenya and Tanzania. Data is being collected on local public goods, including school funding, maintenance of wells, and community participation in village meetings. The resulting dataset provides information on the impact of ethnic divisions on public good provision across a variety of settings and outcomes. Preliminary empirical results indicate that higher local ethnic diversity is associated with sharply lower local funding and worse facilities across ninety rural Kenyan primary schools. The drop in funding associated with the change from complete ethnic homogeneity to median school ethnic diversity is approximately 25 percent of average local school funding, and this relationship is robust to the inclusion of geographic, socioeconomic, demographic and teacher quality controls. Ethnically diverse areas also have lower community participation in school committee meetings, as well as substantially worse water well maintenance in rural western Kenya.Second, the research examines how central government policies toward ethnicity affect inter-ethnic relations and public goods provision, by comparing outcomes across two nearby rural districts: one in western Kenya and one in western Tanzania. Despite their shared geography, history, and colonial legacy, central governments in Kenya and Tanzania have followed radically different ethnic policies since independence.Finally, the research explores the impact of a recent local government decentralization reform in Tanzania - which was gradually phased-in across villages - on local public good outcomes. The unique dataset collected in this project allows the author to test the hypothesis that decentralization reforms improve public good outcomes, and to explore whether such reforms are less effective in ethnically diverse areas due to local collective action failures. Understanding the impacts of decentralization in diverse communities has important policy implications given the current movement toward decentralization in many African and other less developed countries.The field data collection in Tanzania is being conducted in collaboration with a capable local non-governmental organization that has a well-trained research field staff and data entry group. The author has been involved in field data collection projects in East Africa since 1995.