Social divisions and institutions: assessing institutional parameter variation

Isaksson, Ann-Sofie

doi:10.1007/s11127-010-9632-7

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Furthermore, what should matter for agents' attitudes and behaviour is perceived rather than de-facto ethnic bias in aid delivery (see the discussion in Isaksson, 2011). Irrespective of de-facto ethnic bias, citizens may perceive their group as being disadvantaged and mobilize ethnic identities accordingly.…”

Section: Chinese Development Finance and Risk Of Ethnic Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Isaksson

2020

SSRN Journal

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Recent empirical evidence suggests that Chinese development finance may be particularly prone to elite capture and patronage spending. If aid ends up in the pockets of political elites and their ethno-regional networks, this may exacerbate grievances based in horizontal inequalities. Against this background, the present study investigates whether the implementation of Chinese development projects fuels local ethnic identities. A new geo-referenced dataset on the subnational allocation of Chinese development finance projects to Africa over the 2000-2014 period is geographically matched with survey data for 94,954 respondents from 18 African countries. The identification strategy consists in comparing sites where a Chinese project was under implementation at the time of the interview, to sites where a Chinese project will appear subsequently but where implementation had not yet started at the time of the survey. While suggesting substantial country variation, the empirical results indeed suggest that, on average, living near an ongoing Chinese project fuels ethnic identification. I consider two mechanisms possibly underlying this result. First, competition for the inflow of resources that aid constitutes could mobilize ethnic identities across the board. Second, perceptions of ethnically biased aid may fuel ethnic identities in groups perceiving themselves as disadvantaged. Two observations speak in favour of the latter mechanism. First, the estimated effect is not uniform across groups, but driven by people belonging to the out-group. Second, there is no indication of an equivalent pattern when considering development projects of other donors. Replicating the key analysis for World Bank projects as well as for other bilateral donors, the results in fact indicate the reverse, i.e. that living near an ongoing as opposed to a future project comes with weaker ethnic identification.

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Section: Chinese Development Finance and Risk Of Ethnic Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Isaksson

2020

SSRN Journal

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“…Extractive institutions tend to persist because it is in the interest of those in power. Isaksson (2011) argues that social divisions have a negative effect on perceived institutional inclusiveness, which in turn should depress institutional payoffs. Empirical estimations confirm a weaker association between property rights and economic performance in societies marked by social divisions.…”

Section: Inequality and Inclusive Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Dimensions of African inequality

Bigsten¹

2014

WIDER Working Paper

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This paper discusses dimensions of inequality in sub-Saharan Africa and their causes. It starts with a review of the empirical evidence about inequality during the colonial period as well as the post-independence era. Then it discusses the forces that determine inequality change, focusing on factor accumulation and structural change. Next it considers the relationship between inequality and growth, the role of agriculture in the development process, the relationships between ethnicity and social stratification and governance, and external influences on inequality. The paper concludes with some comments on what policy interventions can do to reduce inequality.

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“…Compared with 1960 illustrated in Figure 8 A secured property right is considered to provide an incentive to invest and therefore creates capital accumulation. Isaksson (2011) used cross-countries data to present evidence that social division measured in terms of ethnic fractionalization weakens the association between property rights institutions and income. If this is true, then heterogeneity reduces the incentive to invest even when property rights are well secured.…”

Section: Data and Estimation Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Decomposition of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Growth

Yamamura

Shin

2012

Comp Econ Stud

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractEthnic heterogeneity influences economic growth through various channels such as efficiency improvement and capital accumulation. However, it is open to discussion exactly how ethnic heterogeneity affects these channels. Hence, this paper attempts to examine the effects of heterogeneity on economic growth using data envelopment analysis. The empirical results of the estimations show that heterogeneity has a negative effect on efficiency improvements. However, heterogeneity has no effect on capital accumulation. This implies that ethnic heterogeneity hinders positive externalities such as information spillover, which hampers economic growth.Running title: Ethnic heterogeneity on growth

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Social divisions and institutions: assessing institutional parameter variation

Cited by 6 publications

References 75 publications

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Chinese Aid and Local Ethnic Identification

Dimensions of African inequality

Decomposition of Ethnic Heterogeneity on Growth

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