Publication details

Ethnic diversity and well-being

Authors

AKAY Alpaslan CONSTANT Amelia GIULIETTI Corrado GUZI Martin

Year of publication 2017
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Journal of population economics
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Citation
Web
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00148-016-0618-8
Keywords Ethnic diversity; Subjective well-being; Assimilation; Multiculturality
Description This paper investigates how ethnic diversity, measured by immigrants' nationalities, influences the well-being of the host country. Using panel data from Germany from 1998 to 2012, we find a positive effect of ethnic diversity on the well-being of German natives. Our finding is robust to alternative definitions of ethnic diversity and to the non-random selection of natives and immigrants into regions. The positive effect of ethnic diversity is stronger for immigrant groups that are culturally and economically closer to Germany. Consistent with this result, we document the existence of two mechanisms explaining the influence of ethnic diversity on well-being: productivity-as captured by immigrants' skills and assimilation-and social capital-particularly in relation to the creation of a multicultural environment.

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