Here's an excerpt:

Some researchers have argued for years that high rates of ethnic diversity in a community can eat away at social capital, the interconnectedness among neighbors that helps give rise to a functioning society. A new study led by a Georgia Institute of Technology economist has found new data-based evidence for that theory that also may help explain why it happens.

Instead of relying on behavioral survey data, as key prior studies have, Associate Professor Willie Belton and his coauthors looked at 15 years of county-level U.S. Census data with details on black, Latino, white, and Asian population, along with another data set tracking membership in social, religious, and political groups—measures researchers have argued are good proxies for social trust.

The full article can be read here.

The School of Economics is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.