Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

American Economic Association, American Economic Review, 6(105), p. 1817-1851, 2015

DOI: 10.1257/aer.20131031

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

The value of democracy: evidence from road building in Kenya

Journal article published in 2013 by Robin Burgess, Remi Jedwab, Edward Miguel ORCID, Ameet Morjaria, Gerard Padró i. Miquel, Gerard Padro I. Miquel
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Upload
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

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. (JEL D72, H54, J15, O15, O17, O22, R42)