Ethnic Politics and Ebola Response in West Africa - Working Paper 453

Souleymane Soumahoro

No 453, Working Papers from Center for Global Development

Abstract: In this paper, I examine the effects of power sharing on vulnerability to adverse shocks in a multiethnic setting. Combining a unique dataset on the allocation of ministerial posts across ethnicities with the spatial distribution of Ebola, I provide evidence that ethnic representation mitigated the transmission of Ebola in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The findings suggest that one percentage point increase in proportional cabinet shares reduced Ebola transmission by five percent, as reflected in the total number of confirmed cases. I also provide suggestive evidence that this relationship goes beyond a simple correlation and operates through public resource capture and trust in political institutions.

Keywords: Political Institutions; Ethnic Politics; Power Sharing; Africa; Ebola (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cgd:wpaper:453

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