We survey and assess the literature on the positive and negative effects of ethnic diversity on economic policies and outcomes. Our focus is on communities of different size and organizational structure, such as countries, cities in developed countries, villages and groups in developing...

This paper investigates the determinants of group membership, and in particular the effect of income inequality on individual incentives to join economic groups. Drawing on a simple model, we show that an increase in inequality has an ambiguous e¤ect and that the type of access rule (open...

The aim of this paper is to understand the functioning and the scope of self-help groups in the informal settlements of urban areas as a means of generating income for poor households. The paper uses a unique dataset collected by the author in 1999 surveying all individual group members from...