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"Historical Group Divergence and Cultural Persistence: Evidence from the Neolithic Revolution" (under review, Journal of European Economic Association)
Abstract: This paper investigates long term influence of the Neolithic Revolution, an important historical event during which humans adopted agriculture for the first time, on the current regional cultural differences. A series of arguments presented in the paper claims that the advent of agriculture and subsequent migration of agriculturalists likely triggered the initial cultural divergence, which remained persistent over generations. Using novel Neolithic vegetation variation data and initial agricultural adoption dates, the empirical findings support the arguments and show that the regions which adopted agriculture early also value obedience more, a definitive cultural trait found in collectivist, hierarchical societies. The main finding remains robust to a series of both historical and contemporaneous variables,
and adds to the literature which suggest the possibility of extremely long lasting norms and
beliefs influencing today's socioeconomic outcomes.
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"Keeping Up with the Joneses: External Kin and Constructed Economic Interests in Minority Ethnic Group Mobilization" (Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Peace Research)
with Enze Han and Joseph O'Mahoney
Abstract: Many theories on ethnic conflict posit a relationship between economic inequality and conflict, and many tend to agree that economic inequality between groups within a domestic setting is one of the main causes of grievance and thereby political mobilization. This paper argues that there is a different type of economic inequality, which is the economic disparity between an ethnic group and its external kin group. We hypothesize that an ethnic group is more likely to feel grievance and thereby politically mobilize if its external kin group enjoys higher levels of economic development than the group itself. We test our hypothesis using both country-level and group-level analyses. Data for our analyses are drawn from the Minority At Risk dataset (MAR), the Geo-referenced Ethnic Power Relations dataset (GeoEPR), and Geographically based Economic data (G-Econ). The results show that economic disparity between an ethnic group and its external kin group is positively correlated with ethnic group political mobilization. The poorer an ethnic group is in comparison with its external kin group, the more likely it is to mobilize
politically.
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"Reversal toward Repression and Changing Dynamics of Ethnic Demography: Evidence from Tibet" (under review, Journal of Peace Research)
with Enze Han
Abstract: In this paper, we look at a variety of geospatial factors related to waves of social unrest in Tibet and its surrounding regions in 2008. Our preliminary results indicate that the spread and frequency of protests are significantly associated with the number of government-registered Buddhist sites in particular locales. We argue that changes in religious tolerance policy towards certain counties between the 1980s and the 1990s are significantly correlated with the level of protests in 2008. The counties that experienced relative freedom but later were punished by repression were more likely to stage protests, than those that constantly were repressed. The result holds after controlling for both socioeconomic and ethnic factors commonly identified as leading to inter-ethnic conflict. We further characterize the importance of the case study by reviewing its implications of an authoritarian state’s combined policy of concession and repressive measures, and of gradual ethnic assimilation on uprisings.
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"Ethnic Concentration and Public Goods Provision: A Study of Spatial Patterns and Streetlight Imagery"
Abstract: The nighttime streetlight imagery has been used as a viable measure of economic activities and level of infrastructure. The satellite snapshots of brightly lit areas are especially useful for analyzing patterns of public goods provision in states where it is difficult to obtain unbiased socioeconomic data. Interpreting these images as representative of the level of public goods provision, this paper presents findings based on a set of spatial data of China between 1990 and 2000. It shows that counties which saw an increase in the ethnic minority fraction in total population also experienced a small decrease in the level of streetlights provided in their areas, after controlling for factors such as urbanization and demographic changes. The paper argues that the variation in the level of provision may be an inadvertent outcome of China's policy on economic development.
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"Ethnicity and Violence: A Study of Terrorism in Afghanistan"
with Peter Schram
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of violence and oppression by terrorist groups on local populations. We test whether locals with ethnic ties to the terrorists are more likely suffer from violence as the terrorists attempt to create distance between group members and the culture they can easily defect to. This would mean actions leading to ostracizing of the terrorist groups by the coethnic local population can be intentional. Using both civilian casualty and military incident data in Afghanistan, we present empirical results showing strong evidence of coethnic groups suffering more violence than other groups. The findings confirm the club model behavior of the terrorist group, and offer important policy implications for allocating limited resources in combating terrorism.
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Contact information
Email: cpaik@princeton.edu
Office: Bendheim Hall 018
Phone: (650) 704-4701 (Cell)
(609) 258-0924 (Office)
Mailing address
Bendheim Hall,
Woodrow Wilson School
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 |
