This paper shows that children of mothers who are ethnically more distant from their neighbours have worse health outcomes. I combine individual-level micro data from DHS surveys for 14 sub-Saharan African countries with a novel high-resolution dataset on the spatial distribution of ethnic groups at the \(1\,\hbox {km} \times 1\,\hbox {km}\) level. I measure ethnic distance using linguistic distance and construct the spatial distribution of ethnic groups using an iterative proportional fitting algorithm. Using a time-varying ethnicity fixed effects framework to curb unobserved heterogeneity across ethnic groups, I show that children whose mothers are linguistically more distant from their neighbours face higher mortality rates and are shorter in stature. The pernicious effects of linguistic distance are more pronounced in areas where malaria is endemic. I argue that higher linguistic distance impedes the transmission of information. Consistent with this interpretation, mothers who are linguistically more distant from their neighbours are less likely to receive health-related information. Linguistic distances driven by splits that occurred thousands of years ago are more relevant than more recent splits.

中文翻译：

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民族距离的健康成本：撒哈拉以南非洲的证据

本文表明，种族上距离邻居较远的母亲的孩子的健康状况较差。我将来自DHS调查的14个撒哈拉以南非洲国家的个人级微观数据与\（1 \，\ hbox {km} \ times 1 \，\ hbox处族群空间分布的新型高分辨率数据集相结合{km} \）水平。我使用语言距离测量种族距离，并使用迭代比例拟合算法构造种族的空间分布。通过使用随时间变化的种族固定效应框架来遏制各族裔之间无法观察到的异质性，我发现，母亲在语言上与邻居的距离较远的孩子面临更高的死亡率，身材矮小。语言距离的有害影响在疟疾流行地区更为明显。我认为较高的语言距离会阻碍信息的传递。按照这种解释，在语言上与邻居距离较远的母亲不太可能收到与健康相关的信息。