Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict in Kenya

39 Pages Posted: 3 Oct 2022

See all articles by Alicia Barriga

Alicia Barriga

University of Puerto Rico

Neil Ferguson

ISDC - International Security and Development Center

Nathan Fiala

University of Connecticut

Martin Leroch

Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences

Abstract

There is growing evidence that ethnic divisions and conflict experience affect social capital and economic interactions, in both positive and negative ways. We conduct a set of experiments measuring social capital in Kenya between the two largest ethnic groups, the Luo and Kikuyu, who experienced violence in the 2007 and 2008 post-electoral riots. Our findings indicate trust, coordination, altruism, and cooperation between these groups are not affected by priming people on the ethnic identity of their partners or on the salience of election conflict. Our results suggest electoral violence does not necessarily lead to changes in economic behavior between ethnic groups and that cooperative failure across groups may be easily overstated or might have other mechanisms. These findings are consistent with recent evidence suggesting that experience of electoral violence in Kenya does not correlate with laboratory behavior between the Luo and Kikuyu.

Keywords: C90, H41, O43

Suggested Citation

Barriga, Alicia and Ferguson, Neil and Fiala, Nathan and Leroch, Martin, Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict in Kenya. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4236125 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4236125

Alicia Barriga (Contact Author)

University of Puerto Rico ( email )

Mayagüez
Puerto Rico

Neil Ferguson

ISDC - International Security and Development Center ( email )

Auguststr. 89
Berlin, 10117
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.isdc.org/

Nathan Fiala

University of Connecticut ( email )

Storrs, CT 06269-1063
United States

Martin Leroch

Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences ( email )

Tiefenbronner Str. 65
Pforzheim, D-75175
Germany

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