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Journal of African Economies Advance Access originally published online on June 11, 2008
Journal of African Economies 2009 18(1):153-175; doi:10.1093/jae/ejn009
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© The author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for the Study of African Economies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Does Ethnicity Matter for Trust? Evidence from Africa

Daniel Zerfu*,1, Precious Zikhali and Innocent Kabenga

Department of Economics, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg, Sweden

* Corresponding author: daniel.zerfu{at}economics.gu.se

This paper proposes that ethnicity coupled with ethnic nepotism may reduce interpersonal generalised trust. We use the 2001 wave of the World Values Survey data for eight African countries to test this claim, and show that while ethnicity and ethnic nepotism are each important in affecting generalised trust levels, their interaction has a self-reinforcing and negative effect on trust levels. The results underscore the importance of institutions in controlling ethnic nepotism and thus partly in mitigating the adverse effects of ethnicity on trust.

JEL classification: D02, Z13

1 The authors would like to express their gratitude to two anonymous referees for their helpful and constructive comments. We are also very grateful to Olof Johansson Stenman and Peter Martinsson for their comments on the earlier draft of this paper. Financial support from the Environment for Development (EfD) initiative is gratefully acknowledged.


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