Tribalism and Finance

Abstract

We assess the correlations between tribalism and financial development in 60 countries using data averages from 2000 to 2010. The tribalism index is used to measure tribalism whereas financial development is measured from perspectives of financial intermediary and stock market developments. The long-term finance variable is stock market capitalisation while short-run variable is private and domestic credit. We find that tribalism is negatively correlated with financial development and the magnitude of negativity is higher for financial intermediary development relative to stock market development. The findings are particularly relevant to African and Middle Eastern countries where the scourge of tribalism is most pronounced. JEL: E62, H11, H20, G20, O43.