Diversity may either increase economic activity by utilizing complementarities in production or lead to costly conflict over resources. Using city-district panel data from 18th-century Berlin, a major center of refuge for persecuted minorities in early modern Europe, we analyze the relationship between changes in diversity and economic activity. Prussian rulers specifically invited groups of skilled immigrants, such as Jews, Huguenots, and Bohemians, to settle in Berlin’s newly-developed city quarters. We find that the resulting ethnic diversity fosters textile production in a much broader range of products than individual ethnicities, arguably reflecting complementarities between groups.

多样性要么通过利用生产的互补性来促进经济活动，要么导致对资源的昂贵冲突。我们使用18世纪柏林的城市分区数据，柏林是现代欧洲早期遭受迫害的少数民族的主要避难所，我们分析了多样性变化与经济活动之间的关系。普鲁士统治者特别邀请一群熟练的移民，例如犹太人，胡格诺派和波希米亚人，定居在柏林新兴的市区。我们发现，由此产生的种族多样性促进了纺织品的生产，其产品范围比单个种族要广泛得多，这可以说是群体之间的互补性。