Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador

This paper provides evidence consistent with elite capture of Social Fund investment projects in Ecuador. Exploiting a unique combination of data sets on village-level income distributions, Social Fund project administration, and province-level electoral results, we test a simple model of project ch...

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Main Authors:	Araujo, M. Caridad, Ferreira, Francisco H.G., Lanjouw, Peter, Ozler, Berk
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Publicly Provided Private Goods H420 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4629

id	okr-10986-4629
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-46292021-04-23T14:02:18Z Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador Araujo, M. Caridad Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lanjouw, Peter Ozler, Berk Publicly Provided Private Goods H420 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 This paper provides evidence consistent with elite capture of Social Fund investment projects in Ecuador. Exploiting a unique combination of data sets on village-level income distributions, Social Fund project administration, and province-level electoral results, we test a simple model of project choice when local political power is unequally distributed. In accordance with the predictions of the model, poorer villages are more likely to receive projects that provide excludable (private) goods to the poor, such as latrines. Controlling for poverty, more unequal communities are less likely to receive such projects. Consistent with the hypothesis of elite capture, these results are sensitive to the specific measures of inequality and elite power used in the empirical analysis, and are strongest for expenditure shares at the top of the distribution. 2012-03-30T07:28:55Z 2012-03-30T07:28:55Z 2008 Journal Article Journal of Public Economics 00472727 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4629 EN CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Ecuador
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Publicly Provided Private Goods H420 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150
spellingShingle	Publicly Provided Private Goods H420 Measurement and Analysis of Poverty I320 Economic Development: Human Resources Human Development Income Distribution Migration O150 Araujo, M. Caridad Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lanjouw, Peter Ozler, Berk Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
geographic_facet	Ecuador
description	This paper provides evidence consistent with elite capture of Social Fund investment projects in Ecuador. Exploiting a unique combination of data sets on village-level income distributions, Social Fund project administration, and province-level electoral results, we test a simple model of project choice when local political power is unequally distributed. In accordance with the predictions of the model, poorer villages are more likely to receive projects that provide excludable (private) goods to the poor, such as latrines. Controlling for poverty, more unequal communities are less likely to receive such projects. Consistent with the hypothesis of elite capture, these results are sensitive to the specific measures of inequality and elite power used in the empirical analysis, and are strongest for expenditure shares at the top of the distribution.
format	Journal Article
author	Araujo, M. Caridad Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lanjouw, Peter Ozler, Berk
author_facet	Araujo, M. Caridad Ferreira, Francisco H.G. Lanjouw, Peter Ozler, Berk
author_sort	Araujo, M. Caridad
title	Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
title_short	Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
title_full	Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
title_fullStr	Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
title_full_unstemmed	Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador
title_sort	local inequality and project choice: theory and evidence from ecuador
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/4629
_version_	1764392176973774848

Local Inequality and Project Choice: Theory and Evidence from Ecuador

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