Together or separate? Post-conflict partition, ethnic homogenization, and the provision of public schooling

• This paper studies the effects of a post-conflict partition on public schooling.
• Partitioned municipalities provide more primary schools and teachers.
• Results are mainly driven by convergent preferences for ethnically oriented schools.
• The arrangement benefits only the ethnic majority, generating ethnic inequality.

The partitioning of political jurisdictions is becoming an increasingly common component of agreements to end ethnic conflict, although its impact on post-conflict recovery remains unclear. This paper studies the effects of the partition which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War on the post-war provision of public schooling. I find that partitioned municipalities provide 58% more primary schools and 37% more teachers (per capita). Driven mainly by convergent preferences for ethnically oriented schools, however, this arrangement delivers distributional consequences: in partitioned municipalities, ethnic majority children are more likely to complete primary schooling, while for ethnic minority children it is the opposite.