Fractionalization and well-being: Evidence from a new South African data set

Abstract

This paper aims to test whether a number of fractionalization variables that capture cultural and economic diversity have any impact on reported life satisfaction as well as happiness. Controlling for standard economic and non-economic variables, we test whether (i) ethno-linguistic, (ii) religious, and (iii) income fractionalization at the cluster level have any impact on well-being. The findings indicate that income fractionalization consistently predicts lower subjective life satisfaction when the individual's household income is controlled for, and that religious fractionalization is correlated with lower life satisfaction. Ethno-linguistic fractionalization though does not correlate with life satisfaction. Extensions of the model include adding interaction terms which indicate that ethno-linguistic fractionalization is important to specific ethno-linguistic groups.

Keywords:

• fractionalization
• life satisfaction
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Don Webber and Tony Flegg from the University of the West of England for comments and discussion in an earlier draft of this paper.

Notes

1. Type of political system is known to be an important predictor of whether between-group violence occurs, with Collier (2000) arguing that ethnic fragmentation is less disruptive in democracies. The explanation is that minorities feel more represented in a democracy and less oppressed than under dictatorships.

2. Currently the dominant view is that both ‘quality of life’ and ‘subjective well-being’ are umbrella terms (see, for example, Diener, 2006; and World Health Organisation Quality of Life Group (WHOQOL), 1995). Happiness is normally defined as a positive affect but can also be thought of as a universal evaluation of a person's life satisfaction (Camfield & Skevington, 2008, p. 768). Life satisfaction is thus a subordinate term to the general concept of happiness.

3. A number of books have been written on the subject, including Easterlin (2010), Frey and Stutzer (2002a) and Layard (2005).

4. See CIA (2012) and World Bank (1996).

5. Life satisfaction was not found to be U-shaped in heterogeneity for any of the fractionalization terms, indicating that greater heterogeneity predicts lower satisfaction.