Replication data for: Ethnolinguistic Favoritism in African Politics

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Dickens_AEJ_Coalition_Data.dta	application/octet-stream	1.1 MB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
Dickens_AEJ_Individual_Data.dta	application/octet-stream	27.3 MB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
Dickens_AEJ_Means_Data.dta	application/octet-stream	1 MB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
Dickens_AEJ_Regional_Data.dta	application/octet-stream	4.2 MB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
Dickens_AEJ_Regressions_Figures.do	text/plain	9 KB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM
Readme.pdf	application/pdf	57.1 KB	10/12/2019 09:21:AM

Project Citation:

Dickens, Andrew. Replication data for: Ethnolinguistic Favoritism in African Politics. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2018. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113681V1

Project Description

Summary: African political leaders have a tendency to favor members of their own ethnic group. Yet for all other ethnic groups in a country, it is unclear whether having a similar ethnicity to the leader is beneficial. To shed light on this issue, I use a continuous measure of linguistic similarity to quantify the ethnic similarity of a leader to all ethnic groups in a country. Combined with panel data on 163 ethnic groups partitioned across 35 sub-Saharan countries, I use within-group time variation in similarity that results from a partitioned group's concurrent exposure to multiple national leaders. Findings show that ethnic favoritism is more widespread than previously believed: in addition to evidence of coethnic favoritism, I document evidence of non-coethnic favoritism that typically goes undetected in the absence of a continuous measure of similarity. I also find that patronage tends to be targeted toward ethnic regions rather than individuals of a particular ethnic group. I relate these results to the literature on coalition building, and provide evidence that ethnicity is one of the guiding principles behind high-level government appointments.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Geographic Information Systems; Quasi-Experimental

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
      O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
      O17 Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements
      Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

Geographic Coverage: Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa

Time Period(s): 1992 – 2013

Data Type(s): survey data; event/transaction data; geographic information system (GIS) data; text; observational data

Methodology

Unit(s) of Observation: Individuals, Ethnic Regions, Governing Coalitions,

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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DDI 2.5

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