Ethnic favoritism: An axiom of politics?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: De Luca, Giacomo; Hodler, Roland; Raschky, Paul A.; Valsecchi, Michele
• 署名单位: University of York - UK; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; Monash University; New Economic School; KU Leuven; Collegio Carlo Alberto
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2017.12.006
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 115-129
• 关键词: Ethnic favoritism; Political leaders; institutions; ELECTIONS; Ethnic parties

摘要

We study ethnic favoritism in a global sample and rely on nighttime light intensity to capture a broad range of preferential policies targeted towards the political leaders' ethnic homelands. We construct two panel data sets with several thousand ethnographic regions from around 140 multi-ethnic countries and annual observations from 1992 to 2013. We find robust evidence for ethnic favoritism: nighttime light becomes 7%-10% more intense in the political leaders' ethnic homelands. We document that ethnic favoritism is a global phenomenon not restricted to Africa, poor countries, or autocracies. We also provide evidence that ethnic favoritism is partly motivated by electoral concerns and more prevalent in the presence of ethnic parties.