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Natural resources and the salience of ethnic identities

Author

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  • Victoire Girard
  • Nicolas Berman
  • Mathieu Couttenier
Abstract
This paper documents a new channel of the natural resource curse: the fragmentation of identities, between ethnic groups and nations. We combine individual data on the strength of ethnic – relative to national – identities with geo-localized information on the contours of ethnic homelands and on the timing and location of mineral resources exploitation in 25 African countries, from 2005 to 2015. Our strategy takes advantage of several dimensions of exposure to resources exploitation: time, spatial proximity, and ethnic proximity. We show that the strength of an ethnic group identity increases when mineral resource exploitation in that group’s historical homeland intensifies. This result holds independently of the impact of resources on local economic conditions and conflicts. We then investigate the various potential channels of transmission. Our findings suggest that feelings of economic deprivation and political exclusion associated with natural resources exploitation drive their impact on the strength of ethnic identities.

Suggested Citation

  • Victoire Girard & Nicolas Berman & Mathieu Couttenier, 2020. "Natural resources and the salience of ethnic identities," NOVAFRICA Working Paper Series wp2007, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics, NOVAFRICA.
    • Handle: RePEc:unl:novafr:wp2007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Identity; ethnicity; natural resources;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N57 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa
    • Q32 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Nonrenewable Resources and Conservation - - - Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development

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