Regional Favoritism: New Data, Larger Sample, Same Pattern

Düben, Christian, Roland Hodler and Paul Raschky

No 21239, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Hodler and Raschky (2014) provide evidence for regional favoritism by documenting that subnational regions have more intense nighttime lights when they are the birth region of the country's current political leader than at other times. In this paper, we test the robustness of their findings using new data on nighttime light emissions and the birthplaces of political leaders, resulting in a larger sample with many more countries and years. We confirm that leader birth regions have more intense nighttime lights and that this effect is larger in countries with high ethnic fractionalization, undemocratic institutions, and low levels of education.

Keywords: Regional; favoritism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
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