Showing 1 - 10 of 205
This paper investigates the impact of elite capture on the allocation of targeted government welfare programs in … Indonesia, using both a high-stakes field experiment that varied the extent of elite influence and non-experimental data on a … lists. However, while elite capture exists, the welfare losses it creates appear small: since formal elites and their …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012459863
Can campaign promises change voter behavior, even where clientelism and vote buying are pervasive? We elicit multidimensional campaign promises from political candidates in consecutive mayoral elections in the Philippines. Voters who are randomly informed about these promises rationally update...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012452937
We study the relationship between the political connections of Chinese firms and workplace fatalities. In our preferred specification we find that the worker death rate for connected companies is two to three times that of unconnected firms (depending on the sample employed), a pattern that...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012457401
Does combating corruption reduce clientelism? We examine the impact of a prominent anti-corruption program on clientelism using a novel representative survey of rural Brazilians. Randomized audits reduce politicians' provision of campaign handouts, decrease citizens' demands for private goods,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014287366
In generating fast economic growth, China is also generating growing concern about its environmental record. Using 2000-2009 data, we find that, while spending on environmental infrastructure has visible positive environmental impact, city spending is strongly tilted towards transportation...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012459907
Social movements are catalysts for crucial institutional changes. To succeed, they must coordinate members' views (consensus building) and actions (mobilization). We study union leaders within Myanmar's burgeoning labor movement. Union leaders are positively selected on both personality traits...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014576648
This paper develops a model where this is a trade-off between the enforcement of the property rights of different groups. An oligarchic' society, where political power is in the hands of major producers, protects their property rights, but also tends to erect significant entry barriers,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012468659
This paper combines national accounts, survey, wealth and fiscal data (including recently released tax data on high-income taxpayers) in order to provide consistent series on the accumulation and distribution of income and wealth in Russia from the Soviet period until the present day. We find...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012453999
International trade can have profound effects on domestic institutions. We examine this proposition in the context of medieval Venice circa 800-1350. We show that (initially exogenous) increases in long-distance trade enriched a large group of merchants and these merchants used their new-found...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012460373
This paper deals with the early stages of transformation of centrally-planned economies (CBEs) into market economies during which expectations playa key role. It focuses on the transitional phase during which the economy is not any more a CPE but has not yet become a market economy. During this...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012475308