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Essays on socio-political factors and economic development

Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2021.

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Other Authors: Chisadza, Carolyn
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Chisadza, Carolyn
author_browse Chisadza, Carolyn
author_facet Chisadza, Carolyn
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2021.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:17.410Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/84108 Essays on socio-political factors and economic development Chisadza, Carolyn leone.walters@gmail.com Clance, Matthew Walters, Leone Economics Socio-political factors Economic development Contemporary development outcomes Public infrastructure Demographic and health survey (DHS) UCTD Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2021. Contemporary development outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa vary not only between, but also within countries. These differences today cannot be fully understood without taking ethnicity, and the interrelated effect of ethnic-specific and colonial institutions into account. In this thesis, we study the effect of these socio-political factors on important sub-national development outcomes such as access to public goods, education and women political participation. In Chapter 2 of the thesis, we examine whether coethnicity with the president affects public infrastructure provision in South Africa. Using municipal-level data for 52 district municipalities from 1996 to 2016, we find that municipalities coethnic to the president are associated with higher water and electricity infrastructure provision relative to non-coethnic municipalities. By controlling for variables that proxy for institutions and taking election periods and term limits into consideration, we show that our findings are not driven by political motives. The findings of ethnic favouritism also remain robust to different specifications of coethnicity thresholds and lag structures. The research contributes to the debate on redistributive politics in Africa. In Chapter 3, we show that present-day education outcomes in Africa cannot be independently attributed to colonial or pre-colonial ethnic institutions. It is instead the complementarity or contention between these two institutions that result in education outcomes we observe today. Using geolocated Demographic and Health Surveys' (DHS) literacy outcomes for Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria, we find that British rule is positively associated with literacy in fragmented ethnic regions. The positive effect of British rule, that is often reported in the literature, is mitigated in centralised ethnic regions where British rule was more indirect, potentially opposed and less salient relative to ethnic-specific institutions. This paper contributes to debates on colonial and pre-colonial ethnic influences on development, moving beyond country-level analysis. In Chapter 4, we study whether present-day contemporary women political participation in sub-Saharan Africa can be linked to the transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades and the consequent gender ratio imbalances, in the context of pre-existing gender norms determined by kinship structures. Using geolocated individual-level data for 28 sub-Saharan African countries from the latest Afrobarometer surveys, and ethnic region kinship and slave trade data, we find that a woman's ethnic region exposure to the transatlantic slave trade is associated with an increase in her likelihood to vote, however, only in non-patrilineal societies. This effect is mitigated in patrilineal societies, where women likely have less decision-making power based on lineage. We contribute to the literature on the contemporary sub-national effects of the slave trades and the historical causes of gender gaps in political participation. Department of Economics Doctoral Fellowship Economics PhD (Economics) Unrestricted 2022-02-21T14:16:44Z 2022-02-21T14:16:44Z 2022-05-05 2021 Thesis * http://hdl.handle.net/2263/84108 en © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Economics
Socio-political factors
Economic development
Contemporary development outcomes
Public infrastructure
Demographic and health survey (DHS)
UCTD
Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title_full Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title_fullStr Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title_full_unstemmed Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title_short Essays on socio-political factors and economic development
title_sort essays on socio political factors and economic development
topic Economics
Socio-political factors
Economic development
Contemporary development outcomes
Public infrastructure
Demographic and health survey (DHS)
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/84108