Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision in China

This paper investigates the relationship between ethnic diversity and public goods provision using three data sets from China. Although China implements preferable ethnic policies toward minority regions and the local governments face soft public budget constraint under China's unique vertical political system, ethnic diversity still produce an adverse effect on public goods provision. In addition, this effect remains unchanged for ethnic autonomous counties as well as ethnic townships and educational public goods are more vulnerable to ethnic diversity than medical care.