Objective This article investigates the impact of increasing global integration on economic growth, emphasizing its interaction with the level of ethnic heterogeneity in a society. Methods We perform a feasible generalized least squares estimation of a random effects model on a longitudinal sample of 103 countries taken over the period 1992–2005. Results We find that economic globalization has generally had a beneficial impact on economic growth. We also find that societies marked by greater ethnic heterogeneity have gained more from global integration. Further, while ethnic heterogeneity has been a significant impediment to growth over the sample period, religious and linguistic heterogeneity have not. Finally, we find that democracies have significantly outperformed autocracies over this period. Conclusion Our results suggest that globalization may have a role in redressing the detrimental impact of ethnic cleavages in a society.