Measuring the diversity dividend for community-level health and women's empowerment in Africa

Despite the large body of evidence for a negative association between ethnic diversity and socio-economic development at the national level, there is reason to suppose that community-level diversity may be positively associated with development outcomes. For example, personal interaction with members of an out-group may facilitate the erosion of traditional social norms that inhibit the adoption of innovations that can improve the quality of life. Using household survey data from 20 Sub-Saharan African countries, we measure the overall association of community-level diversity with several measures of women's empowerment and child health. For most of the measures, we find a positive association, even when we condition on other household characteristics such as education and wealth. Our results suggest that the diversity dividend is not just a characteristic of a few idiosyncratic locations, but part of a broad trend. •There remain large inequalities in child health and women's empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa.•Across 20 countries, community-level diversity is positively associated with health and empowerment.•The association is strongest for fertility.