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Horizontal inequality, status optimization, and interethnic marriage in a conflict-affected society

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  • McDoom, Omar Shahabudin

Abstract

Although several theories of interethnic conflict emphasize ties across group boundaries as conducive to ethnic coexistence, little is known about how such ties are formed. Given their integrative potential, I examine the establishment of cross-ethnic marital ties in a deeply divided society and ask what drives individuals to defy powerful social norms and sanctions and to choose life-partners from across the divide. I theorize such choices as the outcome of a struggle between social forces and individual autonomy in society. I identify two channels through which social forces weaken and individual autonomy increases to allow ethnic group members to establish ties independently of group pressures: elite autonomy and status equalization. I find, first, that as an individual’s educational status increases, and second, as between-group inequality declines, individuals enjoy greater freedom in the choice of their social ties. However, I also find that in an ethnically ranked society this enhanced autonomy is exercised by members of high-ranked and low-ranked groups differently. Members from high-ranked groups become more likely to inmarry; low-ranked group members to outmarry. I suggest a status-optimization logic lies behind this divergent behaviour. Ethnic elites from high-ranked groups cannot improve their status through outmarriage and their coethnics, threatened by the rising status of the lower-ranked group, seek to maintain the distinctiveness of their status superiority through inmarriage. In contrast, as their own individual status or their group’s relative status improves, members of low-ranked groups take advantage of the opportunity to upmarry into the higher-ranked group. I establish these findings in the context of Mindanao, a conflict-affected society in the Philippines, using a combination of census micro-data on over two million marriages and in-depth interview data with inmarried and outmarried couples.

Suggested Citation

  • McDoom, Omar Shahabudin, 2016. "Horizontal inequality, status optimization, and interethnic marriage in a conflict-affected society," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68932, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:68932
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Baldwin, Kate & Huber, John D., 2010. "Economic versus Cultural Differences: Forms of Ethnic Diversity and Public Goods Provision," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(4), pages 644-662, November.
    2. Delia Furtado, 2012. "Human Capital And Interethnic Marriage Decisions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 50(1), pages 82-93, January.
    3. Frances Stewart, "undated". "Horizontal Inequalities: A Neglected Dimension of Development," QEH Working Papers qehwps81, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
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    5. Cederman, Lars-Erik & Weidmann, Nils B. & Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede, 2011. "Horizontal Inequalities and Ethnonationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(3), pages 478-495, August.
    6. Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D., 1996. "Explaining Interethnic Cooperation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 90(4), pages 715-735, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. McDoom, Omar Shahabudin, 2017. "Inequality, ethnicity, and cross-group ties," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 73432, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Omar Shahabudin McDoom, 2017. "Inequality, ethnicity, and social cohesion," WIDER Working Paper Series 204, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Omar Shahabudin McDoom, 2017. "Inequality, ethnicity, and social cohesion," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-204, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    horizontal inequality; ethnic conflict; social status; ranked groups; intermarriage; Philippines;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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