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Journal of Economic Policy Reform Vol. 14, No. 1, March 2011, 1–10 Ethnic diversity and economic growth in China Oguzhan C. Dincer* and Fan Wang Department of Economics, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4200, USA 2011Journal of Economic Policy ReformTaylor and FrancisTaylor Francisodincer@0000002011GPRE_A_523985.sgmOriginal ArticleCr OguzhanDincer10.10802011.5239851748-7870 (print)/1748-7889 (online)141 We investigate the effects of ethnic diversity on economic growth in the People’s Republic of China. Based on provincial data from 1982 to 2007, we find a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and economic growth across Chinese provinces supporting existing cross-country studies such as Alesina et al. (2003). According to our estimations, going from complete ethnic homogeneity to complete ethnic heterogeneity reduces the growth rate between 2 percentage points and 2.5 percentage points in China, depending on the ethnic diversity index used. Keywords: ethnic diversity; economic growth; China 1. Introduction Although the Han make up the vast majority of China’s total population, China is a very diverse country ethnically. There are 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China and the Han are a minority in most of the provinces in western China. Among the 55 ethnic groups other than the Han, 44 occupy their own autonomous regions, or counties through their Minority Autonomous Status such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Tibet Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Xingjian Uygur Autonomous Region. The largest ethnic minority groups in China are the Zhuang at 16 million, the Manchu at 10 million, th