Economic Analysis of Ethnic Conflicts

Abstract

There are no exact reasons why ethnic conflicts happen. However, it is not debatable that economic factors are present in any ethnic conflict. Of course, the influences of political, religious, cultural, and social factors cannot be ignored. In this present paper, I try to analyze the economic factors behind ethnic conflicts, based on secondary data. The paper argues that competition among manual workers, negative relationships between businesses and customers, favoritism in employment in services, religious differences among economic agents, insecurity regarding landholdings, changes in domination of common property resources from one community to another, and adjustment problems in globalization are the significant economic factors behind ethnic conflicts in 21st century.