From Rents to Welfare: Why Are Some Oil-Rich States Generous to Their People?
FERDINAND EIBL,
STEFFEN HERTOG
Abstract:Why do some, but not all oil-rich states provide generous welfare to their populations? Building on a case study of Oman in the 1960s and 1970s, we argue that anti-systemic subversive threats motivate ruling elites in oil states to use welfare as a tool of mass co-optation. We use the generalized synthetic control method and difference-in-difference regressions for a global quantitative test of our argument, assessing the effect of different types of subversion on a range of long-term welfare outcomes in oil-r… Show more
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