There Is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum

Benjamin Marx, Thomas Stoker and Tavneet Suri
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Thomas Stoker: MIT Sloan - Sloan School of Management - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tavneet Suri: MIT Sloan - Sloan School of Management - MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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Abstract: Using unique data from one of Africa's largest informal settlements, the Kibera slum in Nairobi, we provide evidence of ethnic patronage in the determination of rental prices and investments. Slum residents pay higher rents and live in lower quality housing (measured via satellite pictures) when the landlord and the locality chief belong to the same ethnicity. Conversely, rental prices are lower, and investments higher when residents and chiefs are co-ethnics. Our identification relies on the exogenous appointment of chiefs and is supported by several tests, including a regression discontinuity design.

Date: 2019-10-01
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03873744
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Published in American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2019, 11 (4), pp.36-70. ⟨10.1257/app.20160484⟩

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Journal Article: There Is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum (2019)
Working Paper: There Is No Free House: Ethnic Patronage in a Kenyan Slum (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:spmain:hal-03873744

DOI: 10.1257/app.20160484

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