Public Infrastructure Provision and Ethnic Favouritism: Evidence from South Africa

Leone Walters (), Manoel Bittencourt () and Carolyn Chisadza
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Leone Walters: Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

No 201949, Working Papers from University of Pretoria, Department of Economics

Abstract: Does ethnic favouritism in administrative governments affect public infrastructure provision? While previous literature has studied the effects of ethnic favouritism on economic growth and development determinants, there has been limited empirical evidence on ethnic favouritism in public infrastructure provision, particularly in South Africa. We study the effects of ethnic favouritism on provision of water and electricity infrastructure. Using municipal-level data for 52 district municipalities from 1996 to 2016, we find that coethnic municipalities are associated with higher growth in infrastructure relative to non-coethnic municipalities. The results remain robust to time and municipal fixed effects, as well as dynamic specifications. Additionally, we construct a counterfactual scenario to confirm our results.

Keywords: Ethnic Favouritism; South Africa; Public Infrastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 J15 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Public infrastructure provision and ethnic favouritism: Evidence from South Africa (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pre:wpaper:201949

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