American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 6 2015

The Value of Democracy: Evidence from Road Building in Kenya

Robin Burgess¹; Remi Jedwab²; Edward Miguel³; Ameet Morjaria⁴; Gerard Padró i Miquel¹

¹ Economics Department, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK (e-mail: ) · ² Economics Department, George Washington University, 2115 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052 (e-mail: ) · ³ Economics Department, University of California–Berkeley, 530 Evans Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 (e-mail: ) · ⁴ Department of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 (e-mail: )

Abstract

Ethnic favoritism is seen as antithetical to development. This paper provides credible quantification of the extent of ethnic favoritism using data on road building in Kenyan districts across the 1963–2011 period. Guided by a model, it then examines whether the transition in and out of democracy under the same president constrains or exacerbates ethnic favoritism. Across the post-independence period, we find strong evidence of ethnic favoritism: districts that share the ethnicity of the president receive twice as much expenditure on roads and have five times the length of paved roads built. This favoritism disappears during periods of democracy.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20131031

Volume

105

Issue

6

Pages

1817-1851

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓