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Ethnolinguistic Divisions and Access to Clean Water in Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Marcela González Rivas
Marcela González Rivas*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Abstract

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The existing literature relating ethnic fragmentation to public good provision sheds little light on inequalities in access to public goods across groups, despite the fact that some of the causal factors underlying the hypothesized relationship seem to predict such inequalities. This article seeks to fill this gap by examining the relationship between ethnic fragmentation and both the level and distribution of access to clean water in Mexico, using regression analysis at both the municipal and individual levels for the period 2000–2005. Using the divide between indigenous and nonindigenous people to measure ethnic fragmentation, the results first replicate the general finding in the literature: more fragmented municipalities have worse access to clean water, all else being equal. However, this worse access is not equally distributed. Instead, there is a systematic gap in water access between indigenous and nonindigenous people, even after controlling for fragmentation and other relevant factors. The findings have important implications for future research regarding ethnic fragmentation and public good provision.

Resumen

Resumen

La literatura sobre la fragmentación étnica y la provisión de bienes públicos esclarece poco la desigualdad que existe en el acceso a bienes públicos entre diferentes grupos de la población, a pesar de que algunos factores causales de la relación parecen predecir dicha desigualdad. Este trabajo busca llenar este vacío en la literatura examinando la relación entre la fragmentación étnica y el nivel y la distribución del acceso a agua potable en México mediante un análisis de regresión a nivel municipal e individual para el periodo 2000–2005. El análisis primero replica el hallazgo general de la literatura, es decir, que los municipios más fragmentados étnicamente tienen peores niveles de acceso a agua potable en iguales condiciones, usando la división entre personas indígenas y no indígenas como la medida de fragmentación étnica. Sin embargo, este peor nivel de acceso a agua potable no está distribuido de manera igual entre toda la población, sino hay una brecha sistemática entre personas indígenas y personas no-indígenas, aun cuando se controla por otros factores relevantes, como el nivel de fragmentación étnica en el municipio. Los resultados del análisis tienen implicaciones importantes para la investigación sobre la fragmentación étnica y la provisión de servicios públicos.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , 2014 , pp. 129 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Latin American Studies Association

Footnotes

I am grateful for comments from the anonymous reviewers; from María Teresa Rivas Castilla, Fernando Gonzalez Grijalva, and Kevin Morrison; and from participants in seminars at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the University of Indiana, the 2010 Annual Meetings of the Midwestern Political Science Association, and Cornell University. Any errors are of course the responsibility of the author.

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