Trickle-Down Ethnic Politics: Drunk and Absent in the Kenya Police Force (1957-1970)

Oliver Vanden Eynde, Patrick M. Kuhn and Alexander Moradi

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, 388-417

Abstract: How does ethnic politics affect the state's ability to provide policing services? Using a panel of administrative personnel data on the full careers of 6,784 police officers, we show how the rise of ethnic politics around Kenya's independence influenced policemen's behavior. We find a significant deterioration in discipline after Kenya's first multiparty election for those police officers of ethnic groups associated with the ruling party. These effects are driven by a behavioral change among these policemen. We find no evidence of favoritism within the police. Instead, our results are consistent with co-ethnic officers experiencing an emboldenment effect. Our findings highlight that the state's security apparatus, at its most granular level, is not insulated from ethnic politics.

JEL-codes: D72 J15 K42 O15 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20160384
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pol.20160384 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... m1b9e727KPtZSSi3C0Cc (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... tsAMUCABuWV8jvBrcC4W (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... EoGxqOr67yFgwMrTbb5V (application/zip)

Related works:
Working Paper: Trickle-Down ethnic politics: drunk and absent in the Kenya police force (1957-1970) (2018)
Working Paper: Trickle-Down ethnic politics: drunk and absent in the Kenya police force (1957-1970) (2018)
Working Paper: Trickle-Down Ethnic Politics: Drunk and Absent in the Kenya Police Force (1957-1970) (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:388-417

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

More articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().