My research falls into four broad areas. Links to papers and other samples of my work in each area are provided below:

Ethnic Politics
My research in this area is motivated by a number of questions: When and why do some ethnic identities (and ethnic cleavages) matter for politics, and when they do not? Why, when people think about who they are, do they see themselves (and others) as members of particular ethnic groups, and why do the groups that they see themselves as part of have the sizes and physical locations that they do? How can we reconcile what we know about the fluidity and context-dependence of ethnic identities and ethnic cleavages with the need to measure social diversity and code individuals by their group affiliations? Why does ethnicity matter for collective action? How well are people able to identify the ethnic backgrounds others? I approach each of these questions with a combination of theory and the collection of original data (including experimental data).

Ethnicity and Economic Development
A growing literature seeks to ascertain the effects of ethnicity (particularly ethnic diversity) on economic growth. My work in this area is in part critique of this literature and in part positive contribution, in light of that critique. In particular, I seek to provide better measures of ethnic diversity and to explore the multiple channels through which ethnicity affects economic performance. I also question the presumed exogeneity of a country’s diversity to its rate and level of economic development.

Political Change in Africa
Dramatic political changes that have swept the African continent over the past decade and a half. My research in this area seeks to document the changes that have taken place and to determine the extent to which the adoption of the formal trappings of democracy have altered underlying patterns of authority and political competition in the region.

Social Capital and Civil Society
Social capital and civil society are two of the “hot” subjects of study in political science, and in the donor community. My research explores the microfoundations of both with an eye toward evaluating their real (as opposed to hyped) effects on social and political outcomes.

Ethnic Politics

Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein) (Russell Sage Foundation, 2009).

Ethnically homogenous communities generally do a better job than diverse communities of producing public goods such as satisfactory schools and health care, adequate sanitation, and low levels of crime. Coethnicity reports the results of a series of experiments designed to find out why. The study, conducted in a neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda notable for both its high levels of diversity and low levels of public goods provision, hones in on the mechanisms that might account for the difficulties diverse societies often face in trying to act collectively. The findings debunk longstanding explanations for diversity’s adverse effects. Contrary to the prevalent notion that shared preferences facilitate ethnic collective action, differences in goals and priorities among participants were not found to be structured along ethnic lines. Nor was there evidence that subjects favored the welfare of their coethnics over that of non-coethnics or that co-ethnics worked more effectively on shared tasks. When given the opportunity to act altruistically, individuals did not choose to benefit co-ethnics disproportionately when their actions were anonymous. However, when anonymity was removed, subjects behaved very differently. With their actions publicly observed, subjects gave significantly more to coethnics, expected their partners to reciprocate, and expected that they would be sanctioned for a failure to cooperate. The evidence indicates that the power of group membership rests in the ability of ethnic ties to induce cooperative behavior--particularly in the subset of the population that is inclined to act egoistically. These results suggest that what may look like ethnic favoritism is, in fact, a set of reciprocity norms--stronger among coethnics than among non-coethnics--that make it possible for members of more homogeneous communities to take risks, invest, and cooperate without the fear of getting cheated. Such norms may be more subject to change than deeply held ethnic antipathies—a powerful finding for policymakers seeking to design social institutions in diverse societies.

Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa (Cambridge University Press, PEID Series, 2005). [Winner of the 2006 Luebbert Prize for the best book in Comparative Politics and the 2006 Best Book Award from the African Politics Conference Group. Also a 2005 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.]

Nearly all countries contain multiple axes of social cleavage. This book presents a theory to account for why, and when, politics revolves around one of these cleavages instead of another. It does so by examining the case of Zambia, where people identify themselves either as members of one of the country’s seventy-three tribes or as members of one of its four principal language groups. The book accounts for the conditions under which political competition in Zambia revolves around tribal differences and the conditions under which it revolves around language group differences. Drawing on a simple model of identity choice, it shows that the answer depends on whether the country is operating under single-party or multi-party rule. During periods of single party rule, tribal identities serve as the axis of electoral mobilization and self-identification; during periods of multi-party rule, broader language group identities play this role. The book thus demonstrates how formal institutional rules determine the kinds of social cleavages that matter in politics. [Table of Contents]

Reviews of Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa in Perspectives on Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Foreign Affairs, Political Science Quarterly, African Studies Review, Journal of Modern African Studies, Choice.

"Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision?," (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), American Political Science Review 101, 4 (November 2007), pp. 709-725. [experimental protocols/proctor instructions]

"Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa," (with Benn Eifert and Edward Miguel), American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming. [Note: an earlier version of this paper was published as Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 89 (2007).]

"The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi," American Political Science Review, 98, 4 (November 2004), pp. 529-545.

"The Colonial Origins of Ethnic Cleavages: The Case of Linguistic Divisions in Zambia," Comparative Politics 35, 2 (January 2003), pp. 127-146.

"The Implications of Constructivisim for Constructing Ethnic Fractionalization Indices," (with David Laitin) APSA-CP 12 (Winter 2001).

"Is Ethnic Conflict Inevitable? Better Institutions, Not Partition" (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), Foreign Affairs, July/August 2008.

"Coethnicity and Trust" (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), unpublished paper.

"Placing and Passing: Evidence from Uganda on Ethnic Identification and Ethnic Deception" (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), unpublished paper.

"Ethnic Identifiability: An Experimental Approach," (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), unpublished paper.

"Social Focal Points," (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), unpublished paper.

"Group Preferences or Group Strategies? Untangling the Determinants of Successful Collective Action Among Ethnic and Gender Groups," (with James Habyarimana, Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein), unpublished paper.

"Measuring Ethnic Identities and Attitudes Regarding Inter-group Relations: Methodological Pitfalls and a New Technique," unpublished memo.

Ethinicity and Economic Development

"Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa," American Journal of Political Science 48, 4 (October 2004), pp. 849-863.

"The Implications of Constructivism for Studying the Relationship Between Ethnic Diversity and Economic Growth," book chapter.

Political Change in Africa

"Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa," Comparative Political Studies, 40, 11 (November 2007), pp. 1302-1327.

"The Institutionalization of Political Power in Africa," (with Daniel Young), Journal of Democracy 18, 3 (July 2007), pp. 126-140.

"Economic Conditions and Incumbent Support in Africa's New Democracies: Evidence from Zambia," (with David Simon) Comparative Political Studies 35, 3 (April 2002), pp. 313-336.

"Malawi's New Dawn," Journal of Democracy 6 (January 1995), pp. 131-145.

Social Capital and Civil Society

"Civil Society and the Reconstruction of Failed States," in Robert Rotberg, ed., When States Fail: Causes and Consequences (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

"Social Capital: Its Origins and Effects on Governmental Performance," (with Carles Boix) British Journal of Political Science 28, 4 (October 1998), pp. 686-693.

"Making Social Capital Work: A Review of Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy," (with Carles Boix) Harvard University Center for International Affairs Working Paper, no. 96-4 (1996).