Walk the line: Conflict, state capacity and the political dynamics of reform

Sanjay Jain, Sumon Majumdar and Sharun Mukand

Journal of Development Economics, 2014, vol. 111, issue C, 150-166

Abstract: This paper develops a dynamic framework to analyze the political sustainability of economic reforms in developing countries. First, we demonstrate that economic reforms that are proceeding successfully may run into a political impasse, with the reform's initial success having a negative impact on its political sustainability. Second, we demonstrate that greater state capacity, to make compensatory transfers to those adversely affected by reform, need not always help the political sustainability of reform, but can also hinder it. Finally, we argue that in ethnically divided societies, economic reform may be completed not despite ethnic conflict, but because of it.

Keywords: Economic reform; State capacity; Politics; Redistribution; Compensation; Ethnic conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 O20 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304387814000248
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Walk the Line: Conflict, State Capacity and the Political Dynamics of Reform (2014)
Working Paper: Walk the Line: Conflict, State Capacity and the Political Dynamics of Reform (2013)
Working Paper: Walk the Line: Conflict, State Capacity and the Political Dynamics of Reform (2012)
Working Paper: Walk The Line: Conflict, State Capacity And The Political Dynamics Of Reform (2011)
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:eee:deveco:v:111:y:2014:i:c:p:150-166

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2014.02.004

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Economics is currently edited by M. R. Rosenzweig

More articles in Journal of Development Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().