An ethnic polarization measure with an application to Ivory Coast data

In this paper, we suggest a framework for the analysis of ethnic polarization. This framework allows for the measurement of ethnic or religious polarization. We apply our measure to Ivory Coast and find a surprising result as the ethnic polarization decreased in years preceding the conflict in the country. However, further decomposition of the ethnic polarization index allows us to understand better how the variation in polarization may have induced this conflict.