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The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?

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  • Konte, Maty

Abstract

We examine the effect of remittances on the legitimacy of democracy in Africa, testing whether remittance recipients are less likely to support democracy than non-recipients. We hypothesize that the effect of remittances on support for democracy varies across classes (i.e., groups or subtypes) of individuals sharing similar but unobserved background characteristics. Using the Afrobarometer surveys, we try to find out whether the respondents fall into different hidden classes in such a way that the effect of remittances on the degree of support for democracy depends on the class. Our results support that remittances may be a curse for the degree of endorsement and support for democracy, depending on the class of individuals that we consider. The analysis of the probability of being in the remittance curse class indicates that the perception of national priorities plays an important role. People who attest that freedom and rights are the main national priorities have a lower probability of belonging to the remittances curse class than individuals who choose national priorities that are oriented towards the economic conditions of their country.

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  • Konte, Maty, 2016. "The effects of remittances on support for democracy in Africa: Are remittances a curse or a blessing?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(4), pages 1002-1022.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:44:y:2016:i:4:p:1002-1022
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.02.004
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    Cited by:

    1. Thierry Baudassé & Rémi Bazillier & Ismaël Issifou, 2018. "Migration And Institutions: Exit And Voice (From Abroad)?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 727-766, July.
    2. Escriba-Folch, Abel & Meseguer, Covadonga & Wright, Joseph, 2018. "Remittances and protest in dictatorships," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89058, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Gordon Anderson & Maria Grazia Pittau & Roberto Zelli & Jasmin Thomas, 2018. "Income Inequality, Cohesiveness and Commonality in the Euro Area: A Semi-Parametric Boundary-Free Analysis," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 6(2), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Ouédraogo, Rasmané & Sawadogo, Relwendé & Sawadogo, Hamidou, 2021. "Access to the banking sector and employment in Africa," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 260-269.
    5. Abreham Adera, 2023. "Do migrant remittances have state de-legitimizing tendencies? A micro-survey based evidence from Africa," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 2197323-219, December.
    6. Konte, Maty & Ndubuisi, Gideon, 2019. "Remittances and Bribery in Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2019-043, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Nana Kwabena Kufuor & Kevin Williams, 2024. "A source of funding for illicit activities or a solution to crime? Evidence from remittance inflows to Jamaica," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 3-25, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migrant remittances; Support for democracy; Multilevel mixture-regressions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • F24 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Remittances
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

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