The Political Boundaries of Ethnic Divisions

We use a policy experiment in Indonesia to show how local political boundaries affect ethnic tension. Redrawing district borders along group lines reduces conflict. However, the gains stability are undone or even reversed when new increase polarization. Greater polarization leads more violence around majoritarian elections but has little effect lower-stakes, proportional representation elections. These results point distinct incentives for winner-take-all settings with contestable public resources. Overall, our findings illustrate promise and pitfalls of redrawing diverse countries where it is infeasible each have its own administrative unit. (JEL D72, D74, J15, O15, O17, O18)