Joseph F. Gomes, researcher of the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) at the University of Navarra, has been awarded a 36,000 euro grant from the Ramón Areces Foundation, scholarship .

Thanks to it, Gomes will develop a study on how the relationship of diverse ethnicities within a country can affect the individual perception of public goods and, thus, their provision. This research is carried out at a global level, although it will focus on two specific cases: sub-Saharan Africa and India, home country of researcher.

This work aims to understand the role of ethnic diversity in the provision of public goods and to provide country leaders with data on regions and groups to design more direct intervention policies and identify vulnerable regions.

Improve the knowledge between ethnicities

According to Gomes, interaction and mutual knowledge between ethnicities can increase or decrease hostility between them and, thus, affect individuals' willingness to contribute to public goods.

From agreement with the researcher, "the more interaction the less antagonism. It would be a very important finding to understand that diversity is not bad if there is more interaction and better knowledge of the other ethnicity".

The scholarship is part of the XV National Tender for the Awarding of Aid to the research in Social Sciences of the Ramón Areces Foundation, which awards 22 grants in total. With it, Joseph Gomes will do research for two years at the NCID, which belongs to the Institute for Culture and Society of the University of Navarra.