DefinePK

Abstract

Social cohesion is both an end, as well as a mean, to achieve other economic anddevelopmental goals. As an end, a more cohesive society can be thought of as a peacefulplace to live in. As a mean, social cohesion has various economic and developmentalimplications. Therefore, nurturing social cohesion can be a desirable objective and knowingabout different determinants of social cohesion can be helpful in this regard. Ethno-linguisticdiversity and socioeconomic deprivations have been identified as such determinants in theexisting literature. Well-functioning institutions can also be good predictors of socialcohesion in a society. They can help to mitigate the negative effects of diversity on socialcohesion. However, hardly any study has empirically investigated the moderating effects ofinstitutions on social cohesion. The current study has tried to fill this gap. For this purpose, across country analysis has been done by employing the Least Squares Dummy Variables(LSDV) technique for empirical estimations. Institutional quality has been measured with thehelp of an index that has been constructed by taking into account the political, legal, andeconomic dimensions of institutional quality. The results suggest that diversity, incomeinequality, and globalization have negative whereas institutional quality has positive effectson social cohesion. The use of the interactive term of institutional quality with diversity,income inequality, and globalization reveals that institutional quality works to nullify thenegative effects of diversity, income inequality, and globalization on social cohesion.